Spain arrests woman with cocaine breast implants

Breast implants stuffed with cocaine are seen in this handout picture released by Spain's Police Dec 12, 2012. Spanish police arrested a Panamanian woman on Wednesday who landed in Barcelona from Bogota, Colombia with cocaine stuffed inside her breast implants.[Photo/Agencies]

MADRID - Spanish police arrested a Panamanian woman on Wednesday who landed in Barcelona from Bogota, Colombia with cocaine stuffed inside her breast implants.

The woman was taken to the police at Barcelona's El Prat airport after her vague answers to questions about the reasons for her trip from Bogota raised suspicion at the border control, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Spanish authorities carry out rigorous checks of passengers arriving on so-called "hot flights" from Latin America, to fight drug smuggling.

When border police discovered fresh scars and blood-stained gauze on the woman's chest she was taken to a nearby hospital to check her claim that she had recently undergone breast implant surgery.

The implants were found to carry 1.38 kg of cocaine.