A man wearing a "narco wig" was caught: he was hiding more than 200 doses of cocaine in his head

A man wearing a “narco wig” was arrested at Rafael Nunez Airport in Cartagena, Colombia , with 19 cocaine capsules hidden in his head. He wanted to fly to Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.

National anti-narcotics police authorities arrested the 40-year-old man in his attempt to transport the drug to the European country after performing a Preliminary Homologated Identification Test (PIPH) .

After testing positive, the agents proceeded to seize the narcotics and discovered that he was carrying 400 doses of cocaine valued at more than 10,000 euros hidden in a wig.

The commander of the Metropolitan Police of Cartagena, Gelver Yecid Peña Araque , said that he was discovered by a group of experts who noticed something strange when the man passed through the airport scanner.

"We are dealing decisive blows against these criminal structures that not only fight over local drug trafficking, but are also the generators of various violent acts and other types of crimes that disrupt peace and coexistence," said the police officer.

The detainee has now been handed over to the Attorney General's Office and is accused of trafficking, manufacturing and carrying narcotic substances , a crime for which he already had a criminal record.

In the second half of last year, the United Nations (UN) released a report showing that cocaine production in Colombia soared by 53% in 2023 to reach 2,600 tons, which was a historic record .

Colombia is the largest producer of cocaine in the world , according to the UN. In its annual report, the organization recorded the highest number of coca leaf crops there (253,000 hectares, 10% more than in 2022).

"Coca is still concentrated in areas where productivity is highest in all three phases: cultivation, extraction and processing, meaning that one hectare of coca today produces up to twice the amount of cocaine it produced two years ago," said Candice Welsch , UNODC regional director, during the presentation of the report in Bogotá.