VivirLatino

I’m not sure if this has gone on before, but it seems like every time I read the news these days, another Spaniard has been picked up for trying to sneak drugs from Latin America into Europe. The latest are a couple of women from Spain who were caught in Lima’s airport carrying 23 kilos (51 lbs.) of cocaine between the two of them. The women, one aged 26 and the other 30, carried the drugs in hidden compartment in their suitcase and in dehydrated food packets. Both say they were “victims” and that the drugs were planted without them knowing.

Yesterday, another Spaniard was picked up by Peruvian police after they found 9 kilos (nothing in comparison to what the ladies were packing) of cocaine that he was attempting to transport to Madrid. He also denied knowing that there was coke in his bag, though he did say that someone was going to pay him $5000 to bring “whatever it was” into Spain. I mean, really…

I think this is really interesting because the idea that many have (especially here in the U.S.) of a “drug mule” is that of a poor Latin American person, a la Maria Full of Grace. Well, that may be true in many cases, but judging from the sheer number of Spaniards in custody in Peru alone, it looks like Europeans are just as likely to take part in trafficking. Spain is currently in second place in the number of citizens it has in Peruvian prisons, second only to Colombia.

Read more…