DRUG CHARGE BRINGS GUILTY PLEA

A South Holland man pleaded guilty Wednesday to helping operate a
drug smuggling ring that used women carrying infants as a cover to
get cocaine into the country.

Paul Kelly, 39, admitted setting up seven trips to Panama from 1998
to 1999 for several women, some of whom brought infants along with
them because the cocaine was being brought back in baby formula cans.

Kelly's drug source in Panama suggested the ruse of the women with
babies, authorities said. Other women smuggled heroin back by
carrying it inside their bodies.

Kelly, who is cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation of
the smuggling ring, could face about 13 years in prison, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Scott Levine said.

When Kelly is sentenced in March, his defense attorney, Richard
Sikes, is expected to argue his crime merits less prison time--about
five years.

Kelly's guilty plea marks the 11th conviction so far by prosecutors
in the investigation.

In August, another ringleader, Leon Holmes, was sentenced to more
than six years in prison for his crimes, which included arranging for
women to smuggle drugs from Jamaica. One of Holmes' recruits was an
honor student at the University of Illinois who pleaded guilty
earlier this year and received probation.

Kelly has a long criminal history, which will lengthen his prison sentence.

He was convicted of drug crimes in 1987, 1993 and 1996; unlawful use
of a weapon in 1993 and forgery in 1999, records show.