8-YEAR-OLD USED AS DRUG CARRIER

An 8-year-old girl and her younger sister stood quietly on a Far South Side
street Monday afternoon when officers pulled up in a squad car to talk to
their dad. But when officer Silas Woods walked over to the girls, the
8-year-old burst into tears.

"She cried and said, 'Don't take my daddy to jail," Woods said. What
happened next surprised even the streetwise Woods, a four-year veteran of
the Chicago Police Department who has spent the past two years as a
tactical officer in the Calumet police district.

The 46-year-old James White of the 500 block of West 119th had forced his
8-year-old daughter to carry heroin for him, Woods said. "I have never seen
anything like this," he said. "It was heartbreaking." Woods and his
partner, officer Bill Starling, drove to Wallace and 119th after someone
walked into the police station and reported that a man was selling drugs
and hiding it in the pockets of a little girl, Woods said. The officers
approached White for an interview about 2:10 p.m., and he agreed to talk.
After the girl began to cry, White admitted that he is a drug abuser and
had extra bags of heroin he wanted to sell, Woods said. Then White
allegedly pointed to the 8-year-old and admitted that she was holding the
drugs.

"Her crying must have struck a nerve in him," Woods said. The officers
discovered a small amount of heroin--about 0.1 grams--wrapped in brown
paper in a pocket of the girl's denim shorts, Woods said. Police also found
$253 in cash on White, who asked if he could get the money back, according
to the officer.

The 8-year-old and her 6-year-old sister were turned over to their mother,
who was at work when their father was arrested, Woods said. "She knew he
had a problem," Woods said of the mother. "She seemed to be very upset that
he was using the little girls." The state Department of Children and Family
Services will investigate whether the sisters should remain in her custody,
police said.

White was charged with possession of a controlled substance and two counts
of child endangerment, said Sgt. Robert Cargie, a police spokesman. Woods
said Monday's arrest was in an area designated as a gang "hot spot." The
City Council passed an ordinance last year allowing police to arrest anyone
who refuses orders to stop loitering in such areas. Although Woods said he
has never seen a man forcing his daughter to hold drugs for him, he has
arrested drug dealers who planted their wares on a baby. "We've seen people
pushing babies in a carriage and the drugs are in the infant's diaper," he
said. "Most of the time they are using someone else's infant. They'll walk
with whoever the young lady is, and she'll push the carriage. But this
really took the cake. You see a lot on the street, but nothing like this."