Latest news with #BrigadierGeneralCarlosOviedo
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Daily Mail
Knocked up then locked up: Woman is caught smuggling drugs in fake baby bump
A Colombian drug mule pretending to be pregnant was busted by cops after she was caught with a huge stash of narcotics in a pretend baby bump. The 27-year-old suspect was arrested on board a bus in the city of Cali after police discovered that she was wearing a latex belly, in which they found her to be hiding up to 5,600 individual doses of cocaine. The unnamed woman is said to have travelled from Narino in south-west Colombia and had been passing through Cali to reach the capital, Bogota, when she was intercepted by police. According to Colombian authorities, the sophisticated prosthetic bellies are purchased abroad by drug trafficking networks. Warning of the fake pregnancy tactic, Cali Police Commander Brigadier General Carlos Oviedo said in a statement: 'These types of garments are used as costume accessories or disguises to simulate pregnancies. 'Drug trafficking networks are purchasing them abroad for approximately [£590]. 'Once they arrive in the country, criminals replace the material of the fake gestational sac with illegal drugs and contact human couriers to arrange for the shipments to different cities in our country', he added. She had up to 5,600 individual doses of cocaine inside her latex belly Another official involved in the investigation told local press: 'This is a concerning new tactic.' 'These false bellies are not just props - they're part of a calculated effort to exploit human empathy and avoid suspicion.' Investigators are now working to determine whether the suspect is part of a larger network operating along high-traffic routes between Narino and Bogota. This is not the first time Colombian drug mules have been busted hiding narcotics in fake baby bumps. Back in 2022, five women were arrested after cops caught one of them concealing cocaine in a fake belly. Agents spotted that the woman was pretending to be pregnant while passing through security at Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport in the coastal city of Barranquilla. The woman, who was traveling with the rest of the suspects to Bogota, was pulled aside for a secondary inspection. Airport police detected several plastic wrapped bundles of the Type A party drug wrapped around her abdomen and placed her under arrest. Subsequently, the flight was temporarily grounded at the gate, allowing officers to search her four female companions, who also had the cocaine packages over their bellies. At least one of the women went inside the airplane's bathroom and removed three cocaine bundles before she was also busted. In all, authorities were able to seize 14 bundles of cocaine and confiscated an unknown amount of psychedelic drugs that Contreras was in possession of. Cocaine production in Colombia has been rising since 2013, according to the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime. A report published in October by the international organization found that the cultivation of coca bushes increased by 10 percent in Colombia in 2023, while potential cocaine production increased 53% from the previous year. While a 2016 peace agreement with the FARC rebels aimed to curb coca cultivation in rural areas, smaller armed groups have filled the power vacuum, actively promoting the lucrative cocaine trade.
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Colombia violence: Kidnapped boy, 11, released after 18 days
An 11-year-old Colombian boy has been reunited with his family 18 days after he was kidnapped by members of a dissident rebel group. Five armed men wearing balaclavas stormed the boy's home in a rural area of Valle del Cauca province on 3 May and seized him and a domestic released the employee soon after but held the boy in a shack at a remote location for almost three weeks until they agreed his freedom in negotiations with Colombia's ombudsman's office, the Red Cross and the Catholic Church. Rebel groups in Colombia are notorious for forcibly recruiting children but the boy's abduction from his home at gunpoint nevertheless shocked locals. Police said that the kidnappers were part of the Frente Jaime Martínez, an off-shoot of the Farc rebel group that continued fighting after Farc agreed a 2016 peace boy's mother described his release as "a miracle", adding that the weeks he had been in captivity had been "horrible, a nightmare".Many dissident rebel groups such as the Frente Jaime Martínez finance themselves through extortion and kidnappings for ransom, as well as drug trafficking. The commander of the regional police force, Brigadier General Carlos Oviedo, said the boy's stepfather had been the real target of the kidnappers, but that they had seized the boy when they found that the stepfather was not at stepfather, a local merchant, told local media that he was not involved in any illicit business and said he did not know why he had been is not clear if a ransom was paid for the boy's stepfather said the boy had told the family that he had been shackled for the first four days of his captivity but was in good health. His mother said that her son appeared anxious and that he had bitten his fingernails down. He was taken to the local hospital for examination. The mayor of Jamundí, the town where the family lives, thanked the local community "for not giving up" and for holding rallies demanding the boy's release. Colombia's vice-president, Francia Márquez, had also demanded that the boy be freed. "Ife is sacred and the freedom of any human being is non-negotiable, less so when it's that of a child," she wrote in a statement.
