Posted on 12/15/2001 1:45:40 AM PST by 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.
Take your name-calling, personal attacking baloney somewhere else.
One of you insinuates that if we put our military on the border, the drug smugglers will bribe them. That's a bunch of lying crap.
If we put our military on the border and order them to protect it, there's no amount of money those dirty scum drug dealers can spend that will get another bag of that filth across. Simple as that.
Well anytime I can make someone of your limited understanding acknowledge other possibilities my day is surly complete. 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.
I'm sure it does. But I don't want to live in Singapore...isn't this the place you get horsewhipped for chewing gum? The higher the stakes, the more profitable the smuggling, the more ingenious people will be, and drugs will get in, all will get in. The more potent drugs are selected out by the war on drugs...makes more economic sense to hide cocaine and heroin for 1000 users in a shoebox, rather than 100 lbs of pot in a barrel.
It is simply not practical or possible to keep drugs out, just as it is not possible to keep dedicated terrorists from smuggling weapons and bombs on airplanes.
At least I can spell and correctly punctuate a sentence. Moronatarian. LOL.
WTF? LOL queer little fellow.
The drug smugglers will not get their filth past our military. Simple as that. Execute all that try and watch the smuggling stop.
They also do so in Iran, China, Thailand, and Malaysia, and they have drug problems there. The difference is Iran, China, Thailand, and Malaysia actually have borders that are larger than a postage stamp there, which tends to make them harder to defend....
The drug smugglers will not get their filth past our military. Simple as that. Execute all that try and watch the smuggling stop.
You should really study a map of this country sometime. Technology is great, but not great enough to stop all the drugs from coming into the country, or even a reasonable percentage....
I wish I was like you.....easily amused.
None of the countries you mentioned have our military. Just ask Irag and Afghanistan.
It's simple as 1, 2, 3.
1) The military arrests the smugglers.
2) The military gives the smugglers a speedy trial.
3) The military puts the smugglers in front of a firing squad and executes the filthy bast**ds.
End of problem.
Experience has proven that, while at first perhaps a few more people may use drugs, a lot fewer will abuse them. After an initial period where people may be curious and try drugs as a new experience, many more will simply get bored with them. That is exactly what happened after Prohibition was repealed in 1933: the number of drinkers rose slightly, but the number of alcoholics declined dramatically. And it is the abuse of any substance (alcohol, drugs, etc.) that causes social problems, not simply the use.
Experience has proven that, while at first perhaps a few more people may use drugs, a lot fewer will abuse them. After an initial period where people may be curious and try drugs as a new experience, many more will simply get bored with them. That is exactly what happened after Prohibition was repealed in 1933: the number of drinkers rose slightly, but the number of alcoholics declined dramatically. And it is the abuse of any substance (alcohol, drugs, etc.) that causes social problems, not simply the use.
Or law enforcement officers caught that smuggler and his hollow surfboard. Correct? The military would execute him.
End of problem.
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