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S P E C I A L: The Standoff with Iraq Stolen U.S. baby formula headed for Iraq?
November 30, 1997
Web posted at: 7:01 p.m. EST (0001 GMT)NEW YORK (CNN) -- U.S. Customs Service officials are investigating a rash of powdered infant formula thefts in Texas and the possibility that the substance is being smuggled into Iraq, Newsweek magazine has reported.
Iraq's baby formula plants were bombed during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and according to UNICEF, 32 percent of Iraqi children under 5 are seriously malnourished.
Police in Texas began taking notice of the thefts in early 1996, when Isomil, Similac and other brands of baby formula began disappearing from store shelves, according to a story in the magazine's December 8 issue.
By this summer, 120 baby formula heists had been reported in northern Texas, prompting Wal-Mart and other chain stores to make the items available only on request, the magazine said.
Texas police reportedly believe items, which sell for $10 to $15 per can, are being repackaged somewhere in the Ft. Worth area, then being shipped to Iraq. But to date, Newsweek reports, there is no evidence of a powdery cache getting any farther than New Orleans, where police seized 5,343 cases on a truck bound for Newark, New Jersey.
It is estimated that baby formula can fetch as much as five times its U.S. price on the black market in Iraq.
Newsweek says Customs Service sources expect to indict up to 60 people on federal charges related to the alleged racket.
There is reportedly a similar investigation under way in Lexington, Kentucky. Newsweek says a lawyer representing an Arab immigrant targeted in that investigation claims his client is doing little more than buying the formula in states where the prices are low and reselling it in areas of the U.S. where formula fetches more money.
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