Teen nabbed smuggling cocaine in teddy bear

Officials were suspicious about fatter-than-normal bear carried by Swiss girl

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updated 9:37 a.m. ET May 31, 2006

STUTTGART, Germany - German agents caught a 15-year-old Swiss girl smuggling cocaine hidden inside a teddy bear, the customs service said Wednesday.

Customs officers on an express train headed for Switzerland at the end of April grew suspicious because of the 32-inch (80-centimeter) tall bear's unusually heavy weight and an extra seam on its stomach.

The girl initially said that the toy was a gift from a friend in Amsterdam, but eventually admitted that it contained cocaine that she was smuggling from the Netherlands to Switzerland, the customs service in Stuttgart said.

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Seventy-two packets of the drug, with a street value of about $64,000, were found inside the bear. The girl said she was paid 3,000 Swiss francs ($2,470) as a courier, the service said.

An investigation to find the leaders of the smuggling operation was under way.