Children caught smuggling heroin inside bodies in SW China

Four underage girls in a southwest China county were caught transporting heroin hidden inside their bodies, local authorities said Thursday.

Police in Longling, Yunnan Province, intercepted a minibus suspected of transporting drugs in Haitou Village last week after a tip-off. The vehicle carried four minors from the neighboring Sichuan Province, aged between 11 and 14.

The kids said they were tempted by an "unfamiliar auntie" with 10,000 yuan (1,627 U.S. dollars) worth of profit if they agreed to transfer "some goods" from Yunnan's border areas to Sichuan. They had been told to swallow 320 capsules of the "goods" in advance before police intervention, the police said.

The drugs, weighing 1.39 kg, have been confiscated, and the girls have been sent home.

A police hunt for perpetrators is underway.

Tan Jieming, a narcotics police officer in Yunnan, told Xinhua such a drug-trafficking case involving underage children is quite rare, although there have been a rising number of cases involving pregnant women or people living with HIV/AIDS.