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.
I am sorry that you find the paramilitary aspect of our government so offensive. I think its one of the few examples of government working for us rather than against us. You're not alone though. No doubt the perp in the picture shares your grief. Given the supply of plastic restraints on that LEO's hip, maybe some day you'll get the same experience.
It figures you'd use a picture form a WACO/Branch Davidian memorial Website. How much lower can you go?
http://www.wizardsofaz.com/waco/picturethis.html
Another Drug Warrior Bites the Dust
I am sorry that you find the paramilitary aspect of our government so offensive. I think its one of the few examples of government working for us rather than against us. You're not alone though. No doubt the perp in the picture shares your grief. Given the supply of plastic restraints on that LEO's hip, maybe some day you'll get the same experience.
82 posted on 12/31/01 8:40 PM Pacific by VA Advogado
I have no problem with Jack booted thugs when they're used against the right people. In this case, law breaking druggies are the right people. No mercy, no peas.
8 posted on 12/13/01 4:50 AM Pacific by VA Advogado
Ha, never. Its a lot easier to just crank up what we're doing now and keep you in the cross hairs. Give the BATF more effective tools, more money, more men and bigger bounties and we're there.
87 posted on 12/28/01 9:49 AM Pacific by VA Advogado
96 posted on 12/28/01 9:54 AM Pacific by VA Advogado
Not in the least. McVeigh is scum like you.
VA Advogado doesn't think the murder of 82 innocents at WACO is offensive in the least. He praises his soul-mate Jack Booted Thugs.
It figures you'd use a picture form a WACO/Branch Davidian memorial Website. How much lower can you go?
Another Drug Warrior Bites the Dust
I am sorry that you find the paramilitary aspect of our government so offensive. I think its one of the few examples of government working for us rather than against us. You're not alone though. No doubt the perp in the picture shares your grief. Given the supply of plastic restraints on that LEO's hip, maybe some day you'll get the same experience.
82 posted on 12/31/01 8:40 PM Pacific by VA Advogado
I have no problem with Jack booted thugs when they're used against the right people. In this case, law breaking druggies are the right people. No mercy, no peas.
8 posted on 12/13/01 4:50 AM Pacific by VA Advogado
Ha, never. Its a lot easier to just crank up what we're doing now and keep you in the cross hairs. Give the BATF more effective tools, more money, more men and bigger bounties and we're there.
87 posted on 12/28/01 9:49 AM Pacific by VA Advogado
96 posted on 12/28/01 9:54 AM Pacific by VA Advogado
96 posted on 12/28/01 9:54 AM Pacific by VA Advogado
So was this story just burried by the Mexican/US govt.? You don't think that a 3 year old American kid, kidnapped in Mexico, and found dead and hollowed to smuggle drugs into the country wouldn't make any major headlines whatsoever, in 1994? What about the press in this country leads you to believe they would have just ignored this story?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
