DRUG-FIGHTER'S WIFE SAYS HE KNEW SHE USED COCAINE

The wife of the former commander of the U.S.  Army's anti-drug operation in Colombia says before they moved to Bogota she once used cocaine in front of her husband to convince him of her addiction.

"I said, 'This is what's wrong with me,' and I proceeded to snort this line of cocaine.  And he looked at me, turned around and walked out," Laurie Hiett said in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview to be aired tonight.

Four months later, the Army offered her husband, Col.  James Hiett, 48, a promotion that involved fighting drugs in Colombia.  Laurie Hiett said U.S.  officials knew of her past addiction, and her husband lied, telling officials she had stopped using the drug so she could accompany him to Colombia.

Laurie Hiett, 36, pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy charges in January, saying she shipped packages containing $700,000 worth of drugs to New York City.

She also admitted traveling to New York to collect the illicit proceeds to take back to Colombia, an act falling under the legal definition of money laundering.

On Friday, she was sentenced to five years in prison after telling a judge: "If I was able to understand what it was going to do to my kids and how it was going to destroy my husband, I wouldn't have done it."

Her husband pleaded guilty to a federal charge last month, admitting that he knew his wife was laundering drug money but failed to turn her in.

He faces up to three years in prison and $250,000 in fines when sentenced June 23.