Istanbul police detain drug smugglers who swallowed 115 condoms

ISTANBUL

Istanbul police detained two suspects of Nigerian origin who were trying to smuggle drugs in condoms that they later swallowed in Istanbul’s Atatürk International Airport on Nov. 11, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Two passengers aged 22 and 27 were detained in the airport upon suspicion of smuggling drugs. They were admitted to the Haseki Training and Research Hospital for a detailed medical examination as the police failed to find enough evidence. 

Medical examinations revealed that they had together swallowed 115 condoms full of heroin and cocaine. One of the smugglers had swallowed 700 grams of heroin, while the other had swallowed 1.3 kilograms of liquid cocaine. 

The suspects were arrested and later sent to prison pending trial after testifying at court.

Earlier this year on June 23, police had detained a drug dealer in a clown costume at a park in Istanbul’s Fatih district. Police officer Eyüp Şahin said police teams caught the dealer while he was selling drugs thanks to the efforts of the security general directorate’s “Mobile Park Police” project.

Meanwhile, drugs worth 25 million Turkish Liras were seized in an operation in Istanbul on Oct. 7, with police confiscating 1.1 tons of the chemically modified cannabis-based drug “skunk.” The raid on the basement of a building in Istanbul’s Bayrampaşa district marked the largest single amount of skunk ever confiscated in Turkey, according to police.