The 40-year-old was held outside an apartment in eastern Lima he had been sharing with a British suspect also taken into custody.
Armed cops grab hold of him as his legs crumple under him and he plunges to the ground while a detective uses a knife to slit open one of the bricks containing the class-A drug.
The 40-year-old was held outside an apartment in eastern Lima he had been sharing with a British suspect also taken into custody.
A British man along with his Irish pal were held by the boot of their rented Nissan after they were intercepted as they allegedly prepared to smuggle the drugs out of the South American country.
The pair had been filmed by undercover cops hugging each other at Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport on July 21 after flying separately to Peru.
Police chief Arturo Valverde, head of investigations at a Peruvian police anti-drugs unit called Dirandro, identified the two men before confirming: “We confiscated 55 kilos of cocaine from them.”
A Bulgarian bodybuilder accused of supplying them with the drugs as part of his alleged work with UK-based drug traffickers was also held.
He has been identified locally as a “key player in the drug trafficking industry” who police say was working with Irish and British criminals to smuggle cocaine from South America to Europe.
The Irishman fell to the ground during the police operation
Colonel Valverde said: “The gang’s modus operandi consisted of smuggling cocaine from Peru into Europe.”
Last night all three men were being held in prison on remand after appearing before a judge and being warned they face five years behind bars if convicted.
It has not been made clear when exactly the arrests took place.
The Bulgarian strongman, who regularly showed off his gym-honed body in selfie social media videos and photos, was detained after detectives who had been tailing him and his alleged customers, intercepted the rented Nissan with the two drug-filed suitcases in the boot outside an apartment in the eastern Lima district of La Molina the Brit and Irishman had been using.
He was held at his home in another part of the Peruvian capital.
Police cut open packages of cocaine
He had been filmed meeting up with his contacts by undercover cops in shopping malls in the city.
The police force that held the men is the same one that arrested Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid, the so-called Peru Two in August 2013.
Michaella, from Dungannon, Northern Ireland, and Melissa Reid from Lenzie, Scotland, were arrested on August 6, 2013 on suspicion of drug smuggling at Jorge Chavez International Airport after their luggage was found to contain 11 kilos of cocaine.
They initially claimed they had been coerced by an armed gang but subsequently pleaded guilty. On December 17, 2013, the pair were sentenced to six years and eight months’ imprisonment.
In early 2016, both women sought to return to the United Kingdom.
McCollum applied to be freed on parole and was released on March 31, 2016, with the prospect of having to remain in Peru for up to six years.
In April 2016, the Peruvian authorities agreed to expel Reid from the country.
She was released from prison on June 21 that year and immediately returned to Britain, arriving at Glasgow Airport the following day.
McCollum returned to Europe two months later, arriving at Dublin Airport in Ireland on August 13, 2016. She later wrote a book about her experiences titled You’ll Never See Daylight Again.
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Publish date : 2024-08-13 22:59:00
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