OSLO, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Drug smugglers have used children in their cars, believing this will help them avoid Norwegian border control, public broadcaster NRK reported Tuesday.
According to Norwegian Customs, smugglers of narcotics told children that they were going on vacation and in this way smuggled big amounts of drugs over border.
"The fact that drug smugglers have children in the car is the most cynical thing we meet," Wenche Fredriksen, head of division at Svinesund Customs Station, told NRK.
This division, being the border crossing with most traffic, takes annually more than half of all drug seizures that are made in Norway.
Last year they took 6 kilograms of cocaine, 841 kilograms of cannabis and 139 kilograms of amphetamine and heroin.
Fredriksen added that the phenomenon of so called "family cars" have been met both in cases with smuggling drugs and alcohol.
"But when it comes to drugs, it is incredibly cynical and the worst thing you can do to children. That is incredibly tragic," she said.
According to Fredriksen, some smugglers have gone so far that they have borrowed the children of others in order to pass through.
After being caught for drug smuggling, the adults are handed over to the police, while the children are taken care of by child welfare services, said Mona Bergseth, leader of criminal investigation department at Halden Police.
According to Norwegian Customs, there are no particular nationalities that stand out in cases of border smuggling.
