Colombian girl’s dad had her swallow cocaine capsules

BOGOTA, Colombia >> An 11-year-old girl is in critical condition after doctors removed from her stomach 104 cocaine-filled capsules her father made her swallow to smuggle drugs to Europe, police said Wednesday.

Officers are hunting for the girl’s father, who was seen on closed circuit television rushing Monday into an emergency room in Cali with his daughter in his arms, then leaving coolly minutes later.

The capsules contained about a half-kilogram (more than a pound) of narcotics, police said.

Police raided the man’s home and say they found a plane ticket to Madrid in the girl’s name.

“In 30 years of service I’ve seen all kinds of strategies to smuggle drugs but nothing as reprehensible as this,” Gen. Hoover Penilla, commander of the Cali police, told The Associated Press.

Colombia’s child welfare institute says it will take custody of the child.