This was certainly a drug bust for the ages.
Earlier this week, police arrested a 28-year-old Panamanian woman at Barcelona’s Prat Airport on drug trafficking charges. The woman was trying to smuggle 2 kilos (3 pounds) of cocaine into Spain inside “breast implants.”
Police stopped the woman after they thought she was “acting funny.” Then they started noticing some other warning signs that roused their suspicions, ultimately causing the entire plot to unravel:
- A suspicious “hot flight” from Bogota, Columba, one of the world’s biggest hot-beds for drug trafficking
- A flimsy story about why she was in Barcelona
- Bloody breasts
If It Looks Like, S**t and Smells Like S**t, It Probably is S**t
Yes, you should probably expect to be questioned when you arrive on a flight from the cocaine capital of the world. I’m not quite sure why she didn’t have a good story when police asked her about her plans while in Barcelona. Logic dictates that if you look shady, are coming from a shady place, and act shady, police will assume that you actually are shady and start hassling you.
The two most likely scenarios:
- She had drugs in her luggage (colossally stupid unless you have a special smuggling compartment in your suitcase)
- She had drugs on her person (still pretty dumb unless you have a great hiding place)
Great Hiding Place, Poor Job Hiding the Coke
Bags were clean, but when a female police officer patted the woman down, she found a bloody gauze bandage under her breasts. The woman claimed the bandages were covering incisions from a recent breast augmentation procedure that hadn’t healed properly. The cops weren’t buying it, and when they poked underneath the incision, they found a pasty white substance.
She was promptly taken to a hospital where doctors removed two huge bags of cocaine from her breasts. The 3 pounds of cocaine recovered was worth about $100,000.
A Blessing in Disguise
According to the doctors, getting arrested probably saved the woman’s life. They said she was in a “very bad state when she arrived at the hospital. She said she was not in any pain, but the wounds looked very bad.” Doctors believed she may not have survived much longer with such large quantities of cocaine stuffed in her breasts.
Unfortunately for this woman, she went directly to jail following the medical procedure to remove the bags of cocaine from her breasts. She did not pass Go, she did not collect $200. And I doubt rolling snake eyes will get her out of jail anytime soon.
Not the First Botched Breast Implant Drug Smuggling
Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time a woman has been busted at an airport for trying to smuggle drugs in breast implants. Last year, a 33-year-old model was arrested at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport for trying to smuggle 5.5 pounds of cocaine in fake breast and buttock implants.
In that particular situation, the woman was done in by a bad case of “hot girl syndrome.” In other words, she was gorgeous, she knew it, and she liked to flaunt it. For some inexplicable reason, she decided to wear a tight-fitting dress with a plunging neckline which drew attention to herself (not to mention the exact location of the hidden drugs).
Airport officers were so captivated by her looks that they began making small talk with her. When her answers to their basic questions about where she was coming from and what she was doing in Rome seemed odd, the airport officers began to suspect she might be a smuggler.
If only she had worn a frumpy outfit with an oversized sweater, she probably would’ve gotten away with it.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog, where I will analyze what went wrong with such a seemingly fool-proof plan.
