35 Charged in Drug Plot Using Formula, Babies

Federal officials charged 35 people Friday in an international scheme to smuggle drugs inside baby formula cans, and said some of the smugglers “rented” infants from their parents to get through customs without arousing suspicion.

U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald announced three 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 Britain from 1996 to 1999.

“Renting babies for the purpose of allowing drug dealers to smuggle cocaine and heroin is truly a new low in drug smuggling,” Fitzgerald said, adding that one infant took six trips--the first at 3 weeks old.

Those charged included alleged suppliers in Panama and Jamaica, organizers, couriers and four Chicago parents accused of renting their children for money or drugs.

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

In Panama, some of the women would be given baby formula cans that contained 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.

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 then were 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 baby formula cans filled with liquid cocaine.

In earlier phases of the investigation, 19 people were charged and 18 of those were convicted, bringing to 54 the total number of people charged. The investigation is continuing into whether more people rented infants to smugglers.

Authorities said about 50 pounds of cocaine and 2 pounds of heroin were seized during the investigation.