Children as young as 3-weeks-old are being victimized by smugglers, who are renting the infants from their parents in exchange for money and marijuana. Cans of baby formula carried in diaper bags are filled with cocaine. The cocaine is then cooked down and the water evaporated.

On April 18, 2002, a 5-year-old girl traveling alone arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport to visit her grandmother. She had two hard-sided suitcases with her. The suitcases contained toys, dresses, sandals, and approximately one kilogram of heroin. A Customs inspector conducting a routine examination thought that one side of the girl's suitcase was unusually thick. The inspector probed the siding of the suitcase and found the heroin.

Unfortunately, this little girl is no stranger to the drug culture. She was born in an American jail while her mother was serving time for heroin smuggling. Her father is currently serving time in a Minnesota prison on drug charges. She's not the only victim in the family either, authorities said that the mother was planning to send her 8-year-old son to New York with another shipment.

A Colombian cartel tempted students from Memorial High School in West New York with offers of $20,000 for a successful smuggling trip. The cartel paid the students to carry heroin on cruise ships in the Caribbean, through Mexico and Central America. Others boarded flights in Colombia - destination Texas, Florida, and New Jersey.

One cell of the cartel, based in West New York, tutored students in the fine art of drug swallowing. In the Caribbean, the traffickers packed condoms or balloons with heroin. The teens swallowed the heroin-filled condoms and boarded commercial airline flights and cruise ships to the U.S.

A second cell, based in Queens, packed clothing soaked in liquid heroin into suitcases that were carried by the students onto jetliners.

In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a New York City woman strapped several pounds of heroin around her 9-year-old son in an effort to smuggle drugs into the United States. Mother and son had just returned from a 10-day west Caribbean cruise when inspectors stopped her.

They had been notified that she was linked to an investigation of a New York drug scheme and were looking for her. She is being charged under a Title 21, Section 981 violation - a first for the Southern District of Florida - utilization of a minor in a drug operation. This carries a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence.

Cartels are recruiting teenagers on the west coast as well. On May 8, 2002, the Pacific Area Integrated Border Enforcement Team (IBET) arrested five U.S. citizens, including two Blaine High School students, involved in a U.S.-Canada smuggling operation. "This is happening all the time, just last week, we caught two 17-year-olds with 52 pounds of BC bud in hockey bags," said Peter Ostrovsky, U.S. Customs Blaine Group Supervisor. "The kids think it's easy money."

A 12-year-old Nigerian boy was detained in New York after one of the heroin filled condoms in his stomach began leaking. Customs agents picked up a 16-year-old girl in Texas driving a pick-up loaded with $32 million worth of cocaine. A 13-year-old girl was apprehended in Manchester, England, with a suitcase containing 13 kg of heroin. Customs has also detained a 9-year-old and an 11-year-old for attempting to smuggle narcotics.

Since Fiscal Year 1997, the U.S. Customs Service has arrested or detained almost 3000 juveniles.