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.