Read a version of this story in Arabic.
Story highlights
The suspect landed on a "hot flight" to Barcelona from Bogota, Colombia
Her story just didn't sound right to border agents
A pat-down revealed blood-stained bandage material
A hospital removed breast implants full of cocaine
She arrived on a suspicious flight. Her story didn’t sound right. And then there was the blood … under her breasts.
An airport security check in Spain led to an operating table for a passenger – where, authorities said, they found she had tucked packs of cocaine in her breast implants.
The Panamanian citizen landed at Barcelona’s Prat airport on a so-called “hot flight,” one that came from a destination known for drug trafficking – in this case Bogota, Colombia.
Ninety percent of cocaine trafficked into the United States, for example, comes from Colombia, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The passenger came under the scrutiny of security agents, who weren’t satisfied with the vague answers she kept giving about why she was in town, Spain’s interior ministry said.
Her behavior aroused the suspicion of officers that she might be carrying drugs either in her luggage or on her.
When a female officer patted down the woman, she found bloodied bandage material under the passenger’s breasts. The gauze, the officer found, was covering incisions. And the breasts were hiding “a white foreign material.”
Fresh breast implants, the suspect mustered an explanation. Must not have healed up right.
The story didn’t convince police, who hauled her off to a hospital.
“There, a medical team extracted a bag-shaped prosthesis from each breast containing a white pasty substance,” the ministry said.
Cocaine. Nearly 1.4 kilograms (3 lbs) of it.
Pure cocaine goes for about $35,000 a pound, according to the DEA.
The expensive implants landed her in jail.
CNN’s Helena DeMoura contributed to this report.