12-YEAR-OLD SAYS HE CARRIED DRUGS TO HELP FAMILY

BOGOTA - Colombian police Tuesday seized a 12-year-old boy
with $500,000 (U.S.) in heroin, some of it hidden in latex capsules in
his stomach, as he tried to board a plane from Bogota to New York.

The boy, named only as Alejandro, told local news media he had hoped
to help his family in the city of Armenia by smuggling 2.5 kilograms
of the drug into the United States. Armenia was wrecked by an
earthquake 18 months ago. He said he had been offered $18,000 to work
as a "mule."

"I did it for my family because we are needy," he said on television,
shielding his face with a baseball cap.