National Police officers in Spain have arrested 14 members of an unscrupulous gang who used human couriers to import drugs into the country. Another 8 arrests were made overseas.
The group recruited people on low incomes with the offer of €1,500 to €3,000 per trip, depending upon the type and amount of drugs.
Suitcases with false bottoms, drugs strapped to pregnant women or to simulate pregnancy and packages of drugs in the stomachs of the couriers were all methods used by the gang. Pregnant women would be forced to drink copious amounts of coffee and salt in order to expel the drugs from their systems.
One courier died after the poorly packaged drugs burst open in the stomach. When he became ill, the courier was pumped full of coffee with salt before being taken to hospital in order to retrieve the drugs.
The police seized 17 kilos of cocaine and 15 kilos of hashish in Spain during the operation with another 7 kilos of cocaine and 500 grams of heroin being seized abroad with the co-operation of foreign police forces.
Twelve of the arrests were made in Córdoba, one in Almeria and one in Madrid. The ringleaders are two Nigerian nationals.