ROSE PARK, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Was a baby used as currency in an illegal drug deal? Investigators want to know if that child was traded for drugs. When deputies went into the house at 772 West 300 North they say they found the nine month old with a woman they believe is a meth dealer.
At 5:30 Monday morning swat and narcotic teams went into the duplex at the corner of 400 North and 900 West. At the same time they entered another home just blocks away. All three homes part of a drug bust. During the raid officials found a 9 month old girl being cared for by Alma Castillo, an alleged methamphetamine dealer. But Castillo is not the baby's mother.
Lt. Don Hutson with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office says, “She said she acquired it from a person who had been to her house that she barely knew, just knew her first name.”
Castillo has been arrested and booked on charges of distributing meth. When we knocked on her door a friend answered. She says it's not a surprise that Castillo would take the baby in.
ABC 4: Why would Alma agree to take care of this baby that she didn't know?
Friend: Because she is that way she takes in everybody she takes in everybody especially the ones that need it the most.”
ABC 4: She's been arrested and booked on charges of dealing methamphetamine. Do you know anything about that?
Friend: No.
This friend describes the 9 month old as malnourished and without basic needs when the 23 year old mother brought her here. Police say the mother admitted to being a meth user but gave the baby to Castillo to protect her. Lt. Hutson says, “Didn't feel like the baby was safe with her on the streets because was living on the streets and cars and homeless at the time.”
Police are continuing their investigation to determine if the baby girl was used as part of a drug deal. Lt. Hutson says, “Natural inference would be that if they don't know each other, no familial relationship that the only way they know each other is one's a dealer and one's a user.”
Police are also looking to charges against the baby's mother. She does have another child who is living with relatives out of state. Castillo also has three other children. They are being cared for inside this home by family friends.
