A man from America has started a seven-and-a-half year jail sentence for renting his infant daughter to international drug smugglers.

Keith Moore and his wife were charged after a cocaine courier was arrested with their daughter. Previously Moore had filed a false kidnapping report with the police to try and avoid arrest.

Couriers used the baby for six trips in 1998 and 1999, starting when she was three weeks old, prosecutors said. The drugs were hidden in baby food tins.

The child has now been adopted after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services took custody of the girl.