International scheme to smuggle drugs in baby formula revealed

INFANTS FOR RENT

By Tammy Webber ~ The Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Federal officials charged 35 people in an international scheme to smuggle drugs inside cans of baby formula, including parents who allegedly rented their infants to smugglers so customs officials wouldn't become suspicious.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald announced three indictments Friday 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.

"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, nine organizers, couriers and four Chicago parents, authorities said.

At least 34 smuggling trips involved female couriers who used 20 infants, Fitzgerald said. The women would travel from Chicago to Panama carrying infants, either their own or infants provided to them for the trip, the indictment alleged.

In Panama, some of the women would be given cans of baby formula that contained liquid cocaine. Others would insert heroin into their bodies. Others traveled from Jamaica with cocaine in rum bottles or concealed in suitcase handles, officials charge. Then all would return to Chicago or New York with the drugs, according to the indictment.

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

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, said Elissa A. Brown, special agent in charge of the Customs Service in Chicago.

Nineteen people were charged and 18 convicted in earlier phases of the investigation, bringing to 54 the total number of people charged in the alleged scheme. The investigation is continuing into whether more people rented their infants to smugglers, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Hoffman said.

Authorities said almost 24 kilograms of cocaine and one kilogram of heroin were seized as part of the investigation.

In the 44-count indictment involving the baby formula, 26 people were charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and heroin from Panama and Jamaica to the United States, and to export cocaine from the United States to England.

The indictment charges Clacy Watson Herrera, currently being held in Panama, of supplying cocaine and heroin from Panama and Byron Watson of Montego Bay, Jamaica, of supplying cocaine and heroin from Panama and Jamaica. Authorities charge that Herrera, Watson and Orville Wilson, 38, of New York, came up with the idea of using female couriers with babies to smuggle drugs.

Taschia Dorsey, 21, and Dianna Gresham, 23, Keith Moore, 35, and Marisa Hardy, 22, all of Chicago, were charged with renting their babies. Authorities claim Moore and Hardy rented their baby six times to four different couriers in exchange for money and drugs.

The second indictment charges four men with conspiring to import cocaine from Jamaica and Panama, and the third charges five people with conspiring to import cocaine from Jamaica.