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Colombian family detained with 3 kg of drugs in stomachs

Colombia's police officers examine the confiscated packs of cocaine. (Reuters)

Police in Colombia have detained a family of four that were together carrying in their stomachs over three kilograms of cocaine and heroin worth up to USD 100,000.

In a statement released on Monday, police said the suspects had been arrested the previous day at the Cucuta airport, near the border with Venezuela, before boarding a flight to the Dominican Republic’s capital Santo Domingo.  

"A total of 2,077 grams of heroin and 1,227 of cocaine hydrochloride, worth up to $100,000 in Central America" were seized from the mother, 39, her 21-year-old son, 16-year-old daughter and their stepfather, 67, the statement said.

They had obtained passports just four days earlier and "were traveling by plane for the first time, with light baggage, but pretending to go on a vacation," it added.

The family was taken to hospital, where X-rays disclosed they had 54 latex capsules of heroin and 37 of cocaine in their stomachs, 24 of which were in the teenager’s body.

Drug traffickers had hired the family by offers of new clothes and money upon their return, police said.

The parents, who are street vendors, and the son, a mason, will be put on trial. The daughter was sent to a child protection center.

Colombian police say 138 "drug mules" have been arrested this year in the South American country trying to board international flights with drug capsules hidden in their bodies.


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