By Courtney Dentch
More than two pounds of heroin were confiscated from a 5-year-old girl’s luggage at John F. Kennedy International Airport after she flew in from Colombia alone late Thursday night, U.S. Customs officials said.
The girl, whose name has not been released due to her age, is believed to be the youngest person ever to be used as a drug mule, Customs officials said.
“Sending a 5-year-old girl alone on a plane to smuggle heroin represents a new low – even for drug traffickers,” said Joe Webber, the U.S. Customs special agent-in-charge for New York in a prepared statement. “This case demonstrates the depths to which trafficking organizations have sunk to ply their deadly trade.”
The unidentified girl is the second child to come through JFK allegedly carrying heroin in two weeks. The other child, 12-year-old Prince Nnaedozie Umegbolu, told police he had swallowed 87 packets of the drug before flying out of Nigeria and arriving in New York April 10.
Prince faces seven charges, including possession of a controlled substance and possession of heroin with intent to distribute.
Both the girl and Prince are American citizens.
The girl, who did not know that she was carrying drugs, was picked up at JFK late Thursday night after customs agents found 1,042 grams, or 2.3 pounds, of heroin in her two suitcases during a routine baggage inspection, said Janet Rapaport, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs in New York.
A customs agent who inspected the girl’s bags noticed the sides were unusually thick, and upon investigation discovered a white substance that field-tested positive for heroin, Rapaport said.
The city’s Administration for Children’s Services took the girl and placed her with a foster family in Queens, said McLean Guthrie, a spokeswoman for ACS.
The girl was put on Avianca Airlines Flight 20 from Bogota by her mother, and was met at the airport by her grandmother, Guthrie said. Neither the girl nor her grandmother was aware of the drugs that were hidden in the suitcases, Guthrie said.
No charges have been brought against the girl, although an investigation is continuing into who sent the child on the trip, Rapaport said.
In Family Court in Jamaica Monday, ACS filed motions to make the girl’s foster placement legal until the investigation is completed, Guthrie said. The agency also filed a neglect petition against the girl’s mother, who is still believed to be in Colombia, Guthrie said.
Once the investigation is resolved, the girl may be returned to her grandmother, who lives in the region, Guthrie said.
“We will continue the investigation and evaluate what’s best for the girl,” she said. “She has relatives in the New York area – a grandmother and an aunt – and they will be involved in the proceedings.”
In Prince’s case, his trial is scheduled to begin in Family Court in Jamaica before Judge Fran Lubow by May 1. He is being held in a juvenile detention center until the case is resolved because he represents a flight risk.
Prince arrived at JFK in the early morning of April 11 after a 16 1/2 hour trip from Nigeria to London and then to New York, Port Authority officials said. Prince, who had been living in Nigeria with his paternal grandparents, took a cab to a non-existent address in Brooklyn, officials said. After making a phone call, he headed up to LaGuardia Airport in the cab, where he began to feel ill.
The cab driver, Ronald Manning of South Ozone Park, brought him to the Port Authority police there, officials said. They took him to Jamaica Hospital where he was able to pass the packets of cellophane sealed with tape from his system, hospital spokesman Paul Picard said. He was released from the hospital and arraigned on April 17.
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 138.
