(NEXSTAR) – He may have been using his head, but a 40-year-old passenger wasn’t able to get past Colombian airport security with a cocaine-stuffed “narco wig,” police said Monday.
Cartagena airport officers made the discovery after subjecting the man to a body scan, which revealed a layer of suspicious material above his skull.
In video released Monday, an officer wearing blue gloves can be seen carefully cutting into the suspect’s wig before pulling it back to reveal multiple walnut-sized bags of white powder.
Police say the baggies, which were bound for Amsterdam, contained more than 400 doses of cocaine and had a street value of roughly $10,500.
“Young people are being used by these bands of criminals tied to transnational gangs,” said Cartagena Police Commander Gen. Gelver Yesid Peña in a warning to the public, and to families of young people specifically. “They trick them, saying that it’s easy to avoid security measures of the national police, but that’s not the case.”
Colombia is the world’s greatest producer of cocaine and was the source of nearly 90% of the cocaine seized and tested in U.S. labs in 2019, according to the U.S. Department of State.
Read: Read More