POLICE SEEKING FAMILY, FRIENDS OF TEEN FACING DRUG CHARGES

Girl Caught at Airport With Cocaine 'Just Telling Stories'

Investigators are trying to find family or friends of a teenage girl
arrested on drug trafficking charges after arriving from Haiti, a
Broward Sheriff's spokesman said Wednesday.

The 15-year-old U.S. citizen, who is not being identified by the South
Florida Sun-Sentinel because she is a juvenile, was caught at Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport with 6 1/2 pounds of pure
cocaine sewn into three pairs of shoes in her luggage, Sheriff's
spokesman Neil Birenbaum said. The girl arrived on an American
Airlines flight from Haiti on Tuesday night.

"Nothing she has told us so far appears to be truthful," Birenbaum
said. "She's just telling stories ... None of them have panned out."

At first, detectives said they believed her parents were using her to
carry drugs, but they have not been able to confirm that. Birenbaum
said she might have been acting on her own, although authorities are
investigating whether others were involved.

"She's facing a tremendous amount of trouble," Birenbaum
said.

The girl, who lists a Broward address in court papers, is charged as a
juvenile with first-degree felony trafficking in cocaine over 400
grams, said Ron Ishoy, a spokesman for the Broward County State
Attorney's Office.

No parent or guardian attended the detention hearing Wednesday for the
girl, who has no prior arrests, Ishoy said.

She is being held at the county Juvenile Assessment Center on $250,000
bond, Birenbaum said.

At a news conference, Birenbaum displayed three pair of shoes marked
with neon green evidence tape. Their soles had been unstitched,
stuffed with the narcotics and then re-sewn, he said.

"Smugglers can be quite creative," Birenbaum said.