World

Passenger from Colombia fails to fool Spanish police with his cocaine-under-the-toupee trick

July 17, 2019 / 9:34 AM EDT / AFP

A pair of photos posted to the Twitter account of Spain's National Police force shows a man arrested at Barcelona's El Prat airport in June 2019, accused of carrying about a pound of cocaine under his toupee on a flight from Bogota, Colombia. Handout

A Colombian man was arrested at Barcelona airport with about a pound of cocaine hidden under his toupee, Spanish police said Tuesday. The man attracted officers' attention because he was "considerably nervous" and his wig was of "disproportionate size," police said in a statement.

Officers questioned the man and found a "perfectly-sealed package taped to his head." It contained 503 grams (1.1 pounds) of cocaine, worth more than 30,000 euros ($34,000).

In what police dubbed "Operation Toupee," the man was arrested at Barcelona's El Prat airport, Spain's second busiest, after arriving on a flight from Bogota at the end of June.

Spain, with its historic and linguistic links to South America, is an important gateway for cocaine to Europe, mainly from Colombia.

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Smugglers often resort to creative methods to get drugs past Spanish customs.

In recent years, police have found cocaine inside breast implants, hollowed-out pineapples, a wheelchair cushion, a plaster cast encasing a man's broken leg, and a 42-piece crockery set.