Spanish police foiled an attempt to smuggle cocaine into the country inside confectionery lollipops, a regional government official said today.
Gang members in Colombia packed the drug into 55 lollipops and sent them by airmail via Madrid's Barajas Airport, Vicente Ripa Gonzalez, governor of the northern region of Navarra, told a news conference in Pamplona.
"Let me warn traffickers...whether they transport drugs in powerful vehicles or lollipops, by land or by air...as long as they don't rest, neither will we," he said in a statement.
He did not specify when the operation took place or estimate the weight or value of the consignment.
Civil Guard officers and customs officials intercepted the package at the airport and the post office traced the addressee in the town of Tafalla.
Police arrested a 52-year-old woman from the Dominican Republic at the address and later detained a 26-year-old Dominican man and his 34-year-old Colombian girlfriend.
Police in Navarra had seized 400 kg (880 lb) of drugs and arrested 350 people in connection with drug trafficking in the past 2-1/2 years, Ripa Gonzalez added.