Marc Klindt appears Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen. Klindt is one of two Las Vegans accused of running a narcotics ring. Illustrations by David Stroud. Javier Alexander Alvarez Monroy appears in federal court Thursday. Authorities allege the Las Vegan ran an international heroin-smuggling operation.

Federal authorities announced Thursday that they had dismantled an international heroin-smuggling operation in which couriers, including a substitute schoolteacher from Las Vegas, imported drugs that were hidden in shoes and the lining of clothing.

Two Las Vegas men accused of running the narcotics organization, Javier Alexander Alvarez Monroy and Marc Klindt, were among nine defendants who appeared Thursday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen. Monroy, 26, is a former police officer from Bogota, Colombia.

Authorities said a 10-month investigation, Operation Viva Las Vegas, led to charges against 22 people, including 16 Las Vegas residents. The charges were unsealed Thursday in New York, where the case is being prosecuted.

A criminal complaint describes Monroy and Klindt, who were arrested Wednesday, as the "principal leaders" of the drug-trafficking group.

Monroy's mother, Flor Vidal, attended the court hearing with a friend and later said she hopes a misunderstanding led to the charges against her son.

"He's always been a big-hearted boy, and as his mother, I never considered him capable of this," she said in Spanish. "I don't think it's possible."

The defendants are accused of participating in an organization responsible for importing more than 200 kilograms of heroin, with a street value of more than $14 million, into the United States since 2004.

According to the criminal complaint, the group uses drug couriers to import heroin from Colombia, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and other foreign countries. The organization then distributes the heroin in New York and elsewhere.

"Monroy and Klindt, together with others, control a network of recruiters, money launderers and drug couriers living primarily in and around Las Vegas," according to the complaint.

The couriers travel overseas and meet with co-conspirators, who provide them with "heroin-laden clothes and shoes," according to the complaint.

The document alleges the couriers then pack the clothes and shoes in a suitcase and travel to New York and elsewhere, where they are met by other members, including Monroy and Las Vegas residents Norma and Angelica Escalante.

Monroy, the Escalante sisters and others sell the heroin-laden clothes to narcotics distributors in the New York area, according to the complaint, and the couriers then transport or wire the cash to Monroy, Klindt and their co-conspirators in Las Vegas.

Among the defendants who reside in Las Vegas is Jeanette Vidal, 47, a substitute schoolteacher who remained at large Thursday evening. Authorities said Jeanette Vidal acted as a drug courier and recruiter for the organization.

Dave Sheehan, a spokesman with the Clark County School District, said Jeanette Vidal has been registered as a substitute since 1999. She is not related to Monroy's mother.

According to the criminal complaint, a confidential source told authorities that Jeanette Vidal has acted as a drug courier for Monroy several times. Travel records confirm that she has traveled to Trinidad and Tobago, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Canada since April 2005, according to the complaint.

The complaint alleges that Jeanette Vidal most recently traveled to Ecuador on Feb. 7 and returned from Bogota to Newark International Airport in New Jersey on Feb. 13.

"Subsequent interceptions on the Monroy telephone indicated that Vidal traveled overseas in February 2006 intending to import heroin into the United States but that Vidal refused to take receipt of the narcotics supplied by Monroy and Klindt's foreign sources of supply because Vidal believed the narcotics were poorly concealed and were therefore likely to be detected upon her return to the United States," according to the complaint.

The complaint alleges that Jeanette Vidal agreed to make another drug trip for Monroy during spring break in April. According to the document, Jeanette Vidal called Monroy on March 20 and said, "I need to be with you sometime soon, because it's going to be spring break coming up soon, and I want to go for a week."

"Subsequent intercepted conversations between Monroy and co-conspirators on the Monroy telephone indicate that Monroy has not yet sent Vidal to make another drug trip but that he still intends to do so," according to the complaint, which was filed April 28.

Some neighbors who live in Jeanette Vidal's condominium complex near Buffalo Drive and Washington Boulevard said about four unmarked cars with California license plates arrived at 6 a.m. on Wednesday. About eight law enforcement officers stormed the woman's condominium, and some of them carried rifles, neighbors said.

One neighbor said Jeannette Vidal had not been home since Saturday. The neighbor said the law enforcement officials searched the woman's condominium and car and the car of her son, who is in his 20s.

The neighbor said Jeanette Vidal told stories about visiting Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the past few spring breaks. The neighbor said Jeanette Vidal told her she would visit the South American country as part of a sanctioned trip from the Clark County School Board.

"How many times can someone go to Rio de Janeiro?" the neighbor asked. "If you go there once, then why would you go there again, unless you have family there? ... You couldn't believe half the things she told you."

Steve Usiak, resident agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's office of investigations in Las Vegas, said officials do not think Jeanette Vidal fled to avoid being arrested.

"Nobody knew that we were coming," he said. "Everybody else that we had located was very much surprised that we were at their door."

Emily Aguero, the district's director of substitute services, while not speaking directly about Jeanette Vidal, said substitute teachers go through the same criminal background checks as full-time teachers. She said the screening process for prospective teachers includes processing fingerprints through the FBI, Las Vegas police and state officials.

Authorities arrested nine people Wednesday in Las Vegas: Monroy; Klindt, 29; Norma Escalante, 45; Angelica Escalante, 36; Chantelle Davila, 31; Wendy Holiday, 35; Cheryl Brenton, 45; Alberto Bada Roman, 19; and Andres Santillana, 64.

Leen ruled that Monroy, Klindt, the Escalantes, and Holiday were flight risks and must remain in custody until they appear before a New York judge. Leen released the other four defendants on their own recognizance.

A woman identified as a sister of Norma and Angelica Escalante sobbed throughout the hearing.

Leen appointed attorneys for all nine defendants, who said they could not afford to hire their own lawyers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Rabkin told Leen that Norma and Angelica Escalante are unemployed and have ties to Colombia. He said Klindt's mother and siblings reside in Colombia.

The prosecutor said Holiday has used methamphetamine daily for the past 14 years.

Leen released Davila against Rabkin's wishes. The prosecutor said the woman has a "fairly lengthy" criminal record and faces a mandatory minimum prison term of 10 years if convicted.

Davila's mother said her daughter is unemployed and sustains herself on Social Security disability payments she receives for severe arthritis.

Christina Davila said her daughter was arrested with Norma Escalante, her friend, at the apartment they share.

"I think she's innocent," Christina Davila said of her daughter. "She's a good girl. She's a real good-hearted person."

The mother said it is impossible her daughter recruited drug couriers or smuggled heroin into the United States. "She's never traveled out of the country," Christina Davila said.

Also wanted in the case are Las Vegas residents Paola Lugan, age unknown, and Pierre Mead, 41.

On Thursday, a Las Vegas couple said they feared Mead was trying to persuade their daughter to flee with him.

Mead, who is accused of being a courier for the heroin ring, made a rare contact with his estranged teenage daughter on Wednesday, said the girl's mother, Martha Wiley.

Wiley said that her brief relationship with Mead in the late 1980s ended long before the girl's birth and that her biological father contacts the high school student only once every few years.

"He called her out of the blue yesterday and wanted her to go to Arkansas or leave the country with him," Wiley said.

Wiley and the girl's adoptive father said they were keeping close tabs on the girl.

The drug investigation was conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Justice Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. It involved agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Usiak said officials are wondering whether the case represents an upsurge in the use of heroin, which has taken a back seat in recent years to drugs such as methamphetamine and cocaine.

"Heroin you don't hear about that much," he said.

Review-Journal staff writers Mike Kalil and Antonio Planas contributed to this report.