Pubdate: Sat, 15 Dec 2001
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2001 The Sun-Times Co.
Contact:  http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Curtis Lawrence

DRUG RING ALLEGEDLY PAID TO RENT INFANTS

In what U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called ''a new low in drug 
smuggling,'' babies as young as 3 weeks old were rented out for $300 to an 
international drug ring that used them as decoys while smuggling liquid 
cocaine in cans of baby formula, federal prosecutors charged Friday.

In three indictments against 35 people, prosecutors said the drug ring made 
51 smuggling trips to Chicago, London and Panama City, sometimes using 
airline tickets obtained through an Internet scam.

 From 1996 through 1999, couriers allegedly smuggled cocaine and heroin in 
suitcase handles, their own body cavities and ultimately in baby formula 
cans using rented babies as cover.

''They basically preyed upon the human trust of mothers and babies,'' 
Fitzgerald said.

Nearly 24 kilograms of cocaine were seized in four seizures and 1.4 kilos 
of heroin in three seizures. The cocaine alone could have had a wholesale 
value of close to half a million dollars and would likely have been worth 
more on the streets.

But federal prosecutors Scott Levine and David Hoffman refused to put a 
dollar amount on the operation and stressed the seized drugs were just a 
fraction of the total involved.

Clacy Watson Herrera, in custody in Panama, allegedly supplied cocaine and 
heroin from Panama City while Bryon Watson supplied cocaine from Panama and 
Jamaica. More than 30 of the smuggling trips involved women who used either 
rented babies or their own children. Twenty children were involved.

The scheme unraveled in January 1999 when a Newark, N.J., airport customs 
inspector stopped a woman traveling to London and discovered the phony baby 
formula. Authorities did not say what tipped the inspector off.

Selena Johnson, 29, joined the scheme in 1998 and said it ''was a great 
idea,'' adding she knew women with babies who would serve as couriers, the 
indictment says.

In one case, Johnson allegedly asked Marisa Hardy, 22, from the South Side 
if she could take care of her baby girl when she was just 3 weeks old.

Johnson then gave the infant to a courier for a trip to Panama. Only 
afterward did Johnson tell Hardy's husband, Keith Moore, that the baby was 
used for drug smuggling. Moore passed on the information to his wife, and 
the couple took marijuana and cash in exchange for Johnson using the baby 
on other trips, prosecutors say.

Hardy told reporters she and Moore needed money and were paid $150 to $300 
per trip, which generally lasted two to four days. The couple said their 
child, now 3, was adopted by an aunt after the ring was busted up.

Johnson, who pleaded not guilty Friday, also allegedly offered to pay 
Taschia Dorsey, 21, to take her baby for several days. A courier took the 
baby to Panama City and back to Chicago. Johnson tried to get Dorsey to 
lend the baby on a second trip but Dorsey refused.

Dorsey's sister Raynetta defended her sister, who has two children ages 2 
and 3.

''She's not a bad mom at all,'' Raynetta said. ''She don't drink, she don't 
smoke, she don't go to parties.'' She said her sister works and is in her 
second year at Northwestern Business College.

Johnson and two other defendants, Danyatta and Matthew Linton, were 
arrested Thursday and appeared in court Friday.

Danyatta, 24, allegedly smuggled drugs from Jamaica in body cavities and 
recruited others to do so. She and her brother Matthew, 23, also allegedly 
recruited others to smuggle drugs to Chicago.

On Friday they stood before U.S. Magistrate Geraldine Soat Brown, both in 
tears. Their attorneys entered not guilty pleas for them.
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