Almost 500kg of cocaine was discovered onboard a Boliviana de Aviación (BoA) flight from Santa Cruz, Bolivia to Madrid, Spain in February. Concerning details about the drug bust have emerged that suggest authorities and airline officials were complicit in the trafficking operation.
Half a ton drug bust in Madrid
As first reported by El País, 484kg of cocaine was smuggled into Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) on a February 12th BoA flight from Viru Viru International Airport (VVI), operated by Spanish charter airline Wamos Air. The illicit shipment was discovered after Spanish authorities searched the cargo hold of the Wamos Air Airbus A330 that had operated Flight OB776.
The Bolivian government has now admitted that drug trafficking has “permeated” many institutions, including customs, airports, the police and BoA management.
Former Bolivian president Evo Morales commented,
“The protection of drug trafficking by Arce’s ministers is clearly proven. The enormous cocaine shipment transported with BoA shows the penetration of drug trafficking in the government, and institutional and political complicity.”
Some suspicious details in this case would support this assertion – airport police and anti-drug chiefs did not take any action until forced to after the bust was made public, while the Bolivian government claims to have known nothing about the alleged drug bust until May.
Photo: Thiago B Trevisan/Shutterstock
Several arrests have now been made, including the airport police chief and the owners of the courier company managing the shipment. Bolivia’s president Luis Arce has also ordered a full investigation into the matter, and his ministers hosted a press conference providing more details.
Minister of Government, Carlos Eduardo del Castillo, said,
“Our country was unaware that the merchandise found in Spain were controlled substances or cocaine. Only at the beginning of May did it become known, unofficially, that this load would be cocaine; all this based on the reports that exist.”
Those complicit in the drug trafficking took steps to conceal the operation, including deleting camera footage. Investigators asked BoA to turn over footage but found it cut out the moment the aircraft was being loaded, while airport customs camera footage was also deleted.
Photo: EQRoy/Shutterstock
However, investigators managed to obtain footage implicating two BoA ground handlers. The two employees were seen breaking the police seal on cargo containers and slipping in twelve boxes containing the cocaine – the aircraft’s cargo shipment was supposed to weigh just over 100kg but ended up almost 500kg overweight.
Trafficking hotspot
Spain has long been a leading entry point for illegal drugs trafficked into Europe, particularly cocaine given its proximity and cultural similarities with Latin America.
Cocaine seizures in Spain have increased astronomically in the last few decades, rising from one ton in 1987 to 50 tonnes in 2017. This incident raises concerns about how frequent these trafficking flights are – local press in Bolivia believe the February 12th flight was just one of several masterminded by a Bolivian drug trafficker nicknamed “Colla.”
What do you think authorities can do to stop drug trafficking operations like this? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Source: El País