Federal Government Busts Smugglers Accused of Using Babies to Bring Drugs Into Country

AP ^ | Saturday, December 15

[Bad~Rodeo]

CHICAGO (AP) - Federal officials broke up a sophisticated drug-smuggling ring in which the suspects allegedly used baby formula cans and sometimes even rented babies to sneak cocaine and heroin into the country.

Thirty-five people were charged, including four Chicago parents accused of renting their children for money or drugs. Smugglers allegedly used one infant on six trips - the first at 3 weeks old.

"This operation preyed on the great respect that we as human beings all afford mothers and babies - and betrayed that respect brazenly," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald announced Friday. "Renting babies for the purpose of allowing drug dealers to smuggle cocaine and heroin is truly a new low in drug smuggling."

Fitzgerald announced indictments alleging Chicago-based conspiracies in which cocaine and heroin were smuggled into the United States from Panama and Jamaica for distribution in Chicago, New York and England between 1996 and 1999.

Those charged included the four parents, organizers, couriers and alleged suppliers in Panama and Jamaica.

Women couriers using 20 infants made at least 34 smuggling trips, Fitzgerald said. The women used either their own children or babies provided to them for the trip.

In Panama, some of the women would be given baby formula cans containing liquid cocaine. Others would insert heroin into their body cavities. Still others traveled with cocaine in rum bottles or concealed in suitcase handles. All of them would return to Chicago or New York with the drugs.

Most of the couriers and parents were recruited from Chicago's impoverished Englewood neighborhood, said Michael A. DeMarte, agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Authorities said the smugglers punched holes in the baby formula cans with a hammer and nail, drained out the formula, then used syringes to fill them back up with liquid cocaine. The holes were then soldered shut.

The indictments were returned late Thursday by a federal grand jury and unsealed Friday.

The charges stemmed from an investigation that began in 1999, when a customs inspector in Newark, N.J., discovered that a woman traveling to London was carrying six formula cans filled with liquid cocaine.

Nineteen people were charged and 18 convicted in earlier phases of the investigation, bringing to 54 the total number of people charged. The investigation is continuing into whether more people rented their infants to smugglers.

Authorities said about 50 pounds of cocaine and two pounds of heroin were seized as part of the investigation.

[Nate505]

Or law enforcement officers caught that smuggler and his hollow surfboard. Correct? The military would execute him.

Yes, they caught him.....the real question you should be asking is how many more of them got across the border? Using their current 'success' rate, that would mean 9 more got over here uncaught. And what are you going to do about drugs that are produced domestically?

[4Freedom]

There are several members of Congress starting to discuss militarizing our borders. I think it has a chance.

[4Freedom]

Their present success rates don't mean diddly-squat. Militarize the borders and then start keeping score.

Domestic production should be handled in a smilar manner. Someone busted trying to produce major quantities forfeits their life. Period. Military trial. Military execution.

Problem solved.

[Jesse]

Snore.

[NC_Libertarian]

Let's kill everyone and rape their family pets. Then we'll see who wants to do drugs.

[Nate505]

I don't think even turning our country into a military state will solve the problem, but I don't want to see our country turned into a military state in the first place.....thank god your idea has as little hope as happening as the idea of totally legalizing all drugs has....

[4Freedom]

Do you hear Bill O'Reilly calling for the legalization of drugs? He mentions militarizing the border on almost every show he hosts on Fox.

That's powerful.

[185JHP]

Sounds to me like you know about a country named Malaysia. What they do about illegal drugs deserves to be called a war. People without consciences don't care about what the law is - they only care about the likelihood of being caught, and the punishment if caught. FReegards

[Nate505]

Ahh yes, I can see the massive protests and the people calling for the militarization of our borders everyday....

[HiTech RedNeck]

Hail the Police State! Want to eliminate a neighbor? Sneak a couple kilos of mary jane into their garage then call the cops from a pay phone. Next stop for them: electric chair. That was difficult to do when the only thing that could earn someone the death penalty was to murder; framing a person was complex and had more to go wrong and blow up in one's face. With your enhanced War on Drugs it will be very easy.

Easing or eliminating restrictions on substances will do the same thing that ending Prohibition did. I.e. more people partook, but the average consumed strength of the substance (in this case alcohol) went down. During Prohibition, few bootleggers bothered with beer, and not much more bothered with wine. We heard of bathtub gin but not of bathtub sherry. Ending Prohibition brought per-consumer hard liquor consumption down (way down). This is cold hard history; it is not an acid dream.

[sam I am]

A friend of ours told us that his friends went to Mexico for the day. They were in a shop with their three year old son. They stopped to look at something and when they turned around the little boy was gone. The police started a search and at the border crossing stopped and searched every car and truck. They found him in the back seat of a car, he had been gutted and was packed with drugs. There should be a death penalty for all drug smugglers.

[4Freedom]

Yeah, swift, sure and severe punishment works everytime and everywhere it's tried.

[4Freedom]

How long ago did this allegedly take place? Is there some kind of a media blackout on atrocities committed by drug smugglers?

[4Freedom]

The death penalty for 2 kilos? Maybe, if these individuals are repeat offenders.That's debatable.

The death penalty for someone caught with a couple of bales? No question.

The guy that's unloading tractor-trailers with a forklift? Dead man walking.

[4Freedom]

I don't know about protests, but O'Reilly put the heat on U.S. Charities to distribute the funds they collected in the name of 9/11. Maybe this added attention will result in true border security, at last.

[karebare]

I would much rather run into a guy ,in a bad area,with a joint in his pocket,than a rapist,child molester or murderer.But guess which one is most likely?

The death penalty for drugs?

Each to their own,some people believe conception deserves the death penalty.

[bassmaner]

If this is true, then the perps involved deserve nothing less than execution by slow torture. But it seems unbelievable (and unlikely) that the news media never got a hold of such a sensational story. "Urban legend", perhaps

[karebare]

BTW we all know the only freedom you are really 4, why not write it all down on paper and leave it in a latrine so real patriots can make proper use of it.

Bravo,applause,and may I add, well said!!

[bassmaner]

Let's just say, for argument's sake, that your suggestions were actually implemented and America is now a police state with militarized borders and death penalties for drug dealers. I sincerely suggest that you stay on good terms with all your neighbors: if one of your neighbors crosses you for any reason just smile and say "That's OK". Because if you pi$$ off your neighbor too much, all he'd have to do is denounce you to the local narcs by reporting "suspicious activity" at your place. Then, away to the local station, endure some torture, be tried in front of a kangaroo court, and off to the executioner (or at least, a long stay in a forced-labor camp).

BTW, this scenario has been played out in the past many times. You can read about the times and places at length in Alexander Solzhenitzyn's "Gulag Archipelago". It's a very telling portent of what life in America would be like if we ever fought the "real" War on Drugs that you and many like you desire.

[4Freedom]

I would bet the guys doing the robbing and murdering are the same guys doing the drugs.

I think we can make a distinction between one joint and a car-load. Don't you?