News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 09, 2005

WEST HAVEN MAN WHO IMPORTED HEROIN IN PACKAGES
OF WOMEN'S SHOES IS SENTENCED
TO FEDERAL PRISON

June W. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcment Administration in New England and Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that LUIS ARTURO QUIROZ, also known at "RAUL CRUZ," age 26, of 760 Washington Avenue, Apartment A1, West Haven, Connecticut, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns in New Have to 57 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, for importing almost two pounds of heroin. QUIROZ pleaded guilty to the charge on February 18, 2005.

On August 5, 2004, federal agents from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance provided by the West Haven Police Department, arrested QUIROZ at his residence in West Haven. At that time, QUIROZ accepted a package containing four pairs of women's shoes in which a large amount of heroin had been hidden before the package had been mailed from Venezuela. Laboratory tests subsequently determined that a net weight of 990.6 grams of heroin was hidden in the shoes.

U.S. Attorney O'Connor commended the efforts of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the United States Postal Inspectors and Drug Enforcement Administration agents, as well as the local police officers of the West Haven Police Department and other departments involved in the Statewide Narcotics Task Force who coordinated their efforts in this successful seizure of heroin.