The mother of an accused drug trafficker tried to protect her family by employing a shaman to hex the Brooklyn prosecutors on the case. Victor Bourne brought in the goods while working as a baggage handler at Kennedy airport and funneled the cash through his mom Maria Alleyne's shoe stores. After being busted, Alleyne did what any good mother would: She hopped a flight to Africa to buy a curse, carrying along photographs of two federal prosecutors for the voodoo ceremony. While U.S. officials initially believed the pictures might be used in an assassination plot — a crime, of course — the shaman's curse is actually protected as a spiritual belief under the Constitution. Mothers always find a way to care for their babies, don't they?

Spirited ‘drug’ defense [NYP]