Heroin smuggler: Drugs were for grandma

DETROIT, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Authorities in Detroit said an airline passenger accused of smuggling $50,000 worth of heroin into the country said the drugs were for his ailing grandmother.

Federal investigators said Stevan Patong Thao, 53, of Oklahoma, who flew Sunday to Detroit Metro Airport from Narita, Japan, after a trip to Laos, was found by agents at the airport to be carrying 490 heroin capsules in two pill bottles, the Detroit Free Press reported Wednesday.

Authorities said Thao, who was released after posting $10,000 bond and is due back in court Jan. 27, told them multiple stories, including a claim the capsules were a prescription, until they told him they tested positive for opium. He then told investigators the heroin was a form of pain relief for his ailing grandmother, authorities said.