Colombian drugs: Colombian drugs body mules - mcall.com

Colombian drugs: Colombian drugs body mules - mcall.com: "Ewarg Larios, Ramiro Ortiz testified Thursday.

One was a nurse who worked long hours helping others. The other was a drug trafficker who would travel to his native Colombia, where he or people working for him would swallow carefully wrapped balloons filled with drugs and smuggle them into the Lehigh Valley, Ortiz said.

Ortiz testified he and Larios were once drug partners and had planned a trip to Colombia before state narcotics agents busted the smuggling ring in the fall.

Asked if he was planning to bring drugs into the country, Ortiz responded, 'I seen how they do it and that's disgusting.'

District Judge Ron Manescu ruled Larios must face Lehigh County Court on a number of drug charges after hearing testimony from Ortiz and a state narcotics agent. The agent described how agents took down the alleged ring, starting with the arrests of a pair of 'mules' who brought more than $130,000 worth of cocaine and heroin from Colombia in their stomachs.

Authorities say Larios, 40, of Easton, and his brother headed the $4.8 million drug smuggling organization that had been bringing high-purity drugs from South America to the Lehigh Valley for the past three years. His brother, Herbert Larios, was one of the two 'mules' charged in October for allegedly attempting to smuggle drugs into the country."