NEW YORK -- The wife of the US Army colonel who headed anti-drug efforts in Colombia has been indicted on charges she mailed cocaine or heroin from the US embassy in Bogota to New York.

Laurie Anne Hiett, 36, was named in a 13-count indictment unsealed Wednesday in US District Court in Brooklyn charging her with conspiracy and trafficking of controlled substances between April and June of this year.

Her husband, Colonel James Hiett, headed US anti-drug efforts in Colombia at the time of the alleged crimes.

Two other men were charged with Hiett: Jorge Alfonso Ayala, a Colombian driver of US military officers in Colombia, and Hernan Arcila, 53, a Colombian living in New York, who allegedly received two packages Hiett sent from the US embassy in Bogota.

US Customs agents intercepted the packages. A search of Arcila's home later turned up records of a bank account number with Ayala's name.

US Customs records showed four similar packages had also been sent from the US embassy to a post office box in Manhattan.

The parcels, each weighing about 1.2 kilograms, contained what federal officials initially believed was cocaine with a street value of around 180,000 dollars. Subsequent lab tests found some of the drugs were actually heroin.

That discovery could result in substantially longer prison terms in case of conviction, since sentencing is based on the drug's value -- heroin is five times more expensive than cocaine, federal officials said.

With heroin, the defendants could be sentenced to more than 15 years in prison, while cocaine carries a maximum sentence of 12 years.

Hiett is free on 150,000-dollar bond and is living with her husband in Virginia. The US Army cleared him of any wrongdoing.