THE smuggling of heroin from Latin America to the United States is surging as big potential profits tempt drug gangs to diversify from their traditional export, cocaine, anti-narcotics agents say.

Latin America, primarily Colombia, is challenging Asia as the main supplier of heroin to the US, they say. ``We are seeing more and more trafficking in heroin,'' Pam Brown, spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Agency in Miami, said. ``There's a lot of concern about that.''

Among the worries are that the heroin is unusually pure and growing numbers of teenagers and students are using it.

In the early 1990s, drug lords such as Burma's Khun Sa, operating in the Golden Triangle area of southeast Asia, supplied more than 90% of the heroin used in the US. In the past two years Latin American traffickers have made significant inroads.

DEA figures show 62% of the heroin seized in the US was from Latin America in 1995, up from zero in 1992. Figures for this year are not in but DEA officials say the trend continues.

``We've seen a sharp increase in heroin production in Colombia,'' Brown said.

The reason is simple - money. A kilogram of cocaine is worth about $18,000 wholesale in the US. A kilogram of heroin is worth between $80,000 and $100,000, she said.

Most of the heroin smuggled in through Miami, the ``command and control center'' of Latin American drug gangs, in Brown's words, is destined for the north and east of the country. Drug Abuse Warning Network figures show a 19% increase in heroin incidents in US hospital emergency rooms.

``Heroin overdoses by rock musicians, young stockbrokers and models capture today's headlines,'' a recent DEA briefing paper said. ``But we're also hearing about mothers of perfect college students who `never did drugs' watching as their brain dead daughters die, and about the bodies of two 18-year-old Orlando young men dumped in an apartment to die by their pusher when they became ill.''

In Florida's Orlando area, heroin is suspected in the deaths of 13 people, five of them teenagers, in the past 15 months.

Most is smuggled in small quantities by ``swallowers'' - people who hide the drugs in their bodies by consuming bags - unlike the cargo loads brought in by cocaine traffickers.

``What's frightening is that it's an outstanding product. We are not going to get a handle on it until we get some big seizures,'' a DEA official said.

``They don't have a good processing system yet. But they already have some very nice poppy fields,'' he added.

Most of the smuggling is carried out by small, independent operators and the involvement of major operators such as the Medellin cartel is limited, DEA officials say. ``We are seeing some cocaine cartel involvement, but it's small scale. The cartels haven't jumped in with both feet yet,'' James McGivney, a DEA spokesman in Washington, said.

While the number of seizures is evidence of greater Latin American heroin smuggling, it does not necessarily mean they have a comparable share of the market. ``The southeast Asians are still in it big time,'' McGivney said. ``They are still working hard.''-Reuters