The Guardia Civil have arrested a 30-year-old male passenger who forced an emergency landing in Gran Canaria for a flight from Brazil, because a ‘capsule’ of cocaine that he had swallowed to illegally smuggle the drug, burst inside his body whilst on the plane.
According to the police press release, the incident took place when the Tax and Border Section was alerted that a flight from Sao Paulo to Madrid needed to make an emergency landing at Las Palmas airport due to the indisposition of a passenger.
When it landed agents and emergency medical staff met the plane to remove the passenger, who was seriously ill due to the effects of the drug in his stomach.
The Guardia Civil accompanied the man to hospital where medical examinations revealed he had 72 capsules inside his body, so he was arrested so that they could be removed and tests could be carried out accordingly.
Finally, doctors removed 72 capsules that contained approximately 14 grams of cocaine each, weighing just over a kilogram, and worth more than 60,000 euros. However, the man said that he didn’t know the exact amount he had inside him as some had been ‘expelled’ during the flight.
The detainee along with the police and medical reports were handed over to the Acting Court in Telde and he was subsequently imprisoned by court order.
