Drug smuggling vet

New York: A Colombian veterinarian who surgically implanted liquid heroin inside live puppies to smuggle the drug into the United States was yesterday sentenced to six years in prison.

Andres Lopez Elorez (39) admitted conspiring to import heroin and will be deported to Colombia after his sentence, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York. According to prosecutors, between 2004 and 2005 Elorez leased a farm in Medellin, Colombia, where he reared dogs and sewed bags of liquid heroin into nine puppies for importation to the United States.

During a search of the farm in 2005, foreign law enforcement agents seized 17 bags of liquid heroin weighing nearly 3kg, including 10 bags extracted from the puppies.