Natuashish Chief Prote Poker said officials were aware that kids were being used to transport alcohol and drugs into the community. (CBC)

A drug dealer used a small child's carry-on luggage last week in an attempt to smuggle marijuana into the Labrador village of Natuashish, police said.

RCMP said the child was in no way responsible for the drugs, which were seized Thursday after the child arrived in the community by airplane. Police released details of the incident Monday.

"It's something disturbing that someone would go to this level to move drugs around," Sgt. Wayne Newell said.

A half a kilogram of marijuana was seized during an ongoing RCMP investigation. No charges have been laid, although Newell said investigators hope to lay charges before the end of the week.

He said police are working with social and health workers to limit the impact of the incident on the child, whose age has not been released.

"Obviously, this has to be a traumatic experience for any child to have the police come and take a bag from them when other people are involved in moving drugs," he said.

"It's not something that a young child should have to go through."

Luggage searched

Newell said police had "reasonable grounds" to approach the child's luggage after the plane arrived.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government's division of child, youth and family services is conducting a separate investigation, Newell said.

Meanwhile, Prote Poker, chief of the Innu community, said he is not surprised that someone tried to use a child to smuggle drugs into Natuashish, where people have had long-running problems with addictions.

"It's been an ongoing problem," said Poker.

"We know that kids were used to transport alcohol and drugs into the community. That's not news to us. It's just the first time people got caught doing it."

Poker championed a ban on alcohol that Natuashish residents narrowly approved last year. The ban gives RCMP permission to search the bags of people as they arrive in the small community on Labrador's northern coast.