PANAMA | Two Colombian women were arrested at Panama’s Tocumen International Airport on Friday as they attempted to fly to Spain with cocaine concealed under wigs, the Central American country’s attorney general’s office said.
Panamanian drug prosecutor Xiomara Rodriguez initially reported the arrest of a Colombian woman who was on a flight to Madrid.
This first inmate was accosted by police at the airport after her hairstyle aroused suspicion.
After a scanner test, officers found that the suspect had drug pills attached to her head, between the braids of her natural hair and her wig.
According to Ms. Rodríguez, the woman, about whom no further details were given, carried under her wig “68 black cylindrical packages containing white powder”.
This is an “unprecedented” mode of trafficking in Panama, added Ms. Rodriguez in a video posted on the Twitter account of the office of the Attorney General of Panama.
Hours later, the prosecutor’s office announced the arrest of “a second woman” with “67 packages of alleged drugs” hidden under another wig. She was also traveling from Colombia to Spain.
Sources from the attorney general’s office confirmed to AFP that the second detainee is also Colombian.
Among the curious forms of drug trafficking, the Panamanian police surprised in 2021, in the perimeter of a prison, the “narcocat”, a feline carrying cocaine, crack and marijuana tied around its neck.
Panama is the main port of entry into Central America for drugs from South America, mainly from Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, destined for the United States, the world’s largest consumer of this drug.
Authorities in Central America, however, have noted a significant increase in drug trafficking to Europe, mainly via Caribbean ports.