Drug Smugglers Ingenious, Police Say
Drug smugglers have been getting ingenious lately. Police have found drugs hidden in cans of "palmito" and in paintings of Jesus. Now, a group was uncovered hiding narcotics in wigs.

It appears that the ingenuity of drug traffickers has no limits, both to bring drugs into Costa Rica or to send to other countries. Places least likely to be considered are being used more and more frequently.

The latest case is of two cousins from the Limón area who were detained by the Policía de Control de Drogas (PCD) who were leaving the Juan Santamaría international airport in San José, heading for Spain.

Police say the two women each had a kilo of cocaine hidden in their head. The drug was adhered to a wig that the women were wearing.

The women are being held in preventive detention for the next three months as police continue their investigation.

Other unusual places include hiding drugs in bottles of wine. In July 2000, police detained a man who had dissolved the drug in the liquid and confiscated three cases of wine.

In July 2001, two beer cans were used to occult 8 kilos of cocaine. In December of the same year, four paintings of Jesus were detected to have drugs hidden in the frame. The woman detained by police was U.S. bound.

A few days later, on December 18, 2001, four cans of Colombian tuna did not carry any fish product. A few days later, a Swiss national had hidden cocaine in the soles of his shoes that had been in the check-in luggage.

And more recently, last month, authorities found 22 kilos of cocaine hidden in cans of "palmito" that was part of a regular shipment to Europe. According to police, the palmito exporter regularly hid the drugs in cans of palmito, mixed among cans actually containing palmito, headed for the European market.

A conviction for smuggling drugs into or out of Costa Rica carries a maximum penalty of 18 years in prison.