Spanish authorities have arrested a woman from Panama who was caught at the Barcelona airport attempting to smuggle cocaine inside her breast implants. The Associated Press reports that the woman was arrested after authorities became suspicious of what appeared to be a recent surgery on the woman’s breasts.
Border security authorities at the airport noticed fresh wounds and blood soaked gauze. Upon closer inspection they could see white patches just beneath the skin’s surface. The woman admitted that she had recently had a breast augmentation, but authorities were suspicious and had her taken to a local hospital.
Doctors reopened her breasts and removed the implants, which are reported to have contained three pounds of cocaine. According to the Daily Mail , a police source stated that, if the woman had not been caught, the amount of cocaine in her breasts would have likely killed her.
Passengers arriving to the Barcelona airport from Latin America are routinely subjected to more strict screening and security checks in the attempt to curb drug trafficking. The woman had arrived in Spain from Bogotá, Colombia.
This is not the first time a woman has been caught trying to smuggle drugs with “implants.” In December of 2011, Italian authorities arrested a woman caught trying to smuggle cocaine in her breast and butt implants. Upon a strip searc,h the authorities found the bags of cocaine. The 33-year-old woman did not actually have the cocaine inside her body; it was only strategically placed in a way that enhanced her figure. An article appearing in Gizmodo.com also contained this chillingly ironic quote from the writer:
“I wonder if traffickers would ever use real implants. Those would be impossible to detect, but I don’t want to imagine what would happen if they break.”
