TODAY COLOMBIA NEWS — An 11-year-old girl thought to be the world’s youngest drug mule has been stopped in Cali carrying more than 100 capsules of cocaine in her stomach. Police are now hunting the father of the youngster, who cheated death after being fed 104 capsules so she could board a plane to Spain.
The young girl underwent a life-saving operation after her dad and another relative rushed her to Clínica Valle del Lili hospital Monday morning when one of the capsules burst inside her stomach.
The unnamed youngster was hours away from taking a flight to Madrid with her dad when the drama happened.
Images from the hospital security cameras show she was rushed in by her dad, who fled after leaving his daughter with hospital staff.
Cali police chief Hoover Penilla said: “The girl underwent emergency surgery because of the risk to her life and 104 capsules that appear to be cocaine capsules were removed from her body.
“Everything is pointing to the fact this youngster was going to be used in a twisted way by adults as a drugs mule to transport drugs from Colombia to another country.”
He added: “They had flights reserved to travel from Cali to Madrid with a final destination of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).”
El Pais reports that his is not the little girl’s first trip to Spain, she travelled there last March, but it is unknown if she was used as a drug mule on that trip.
The girl’s mother told police she and her husband were separated, but detectives say they believe she may be lying after searching the family home and finding evidence they still lived together.
Colombia, alongside Peru, is known as one of the world’s top exporters of cocaine.
Police at Madrid Airport have in the past stopped drugs traffickers carrying cocaine sewn into the underside of wigs, hidden inside false plaster casts and stashed inside the arms of wheelchairs.
The city of Cali became synonymous with cocaine in the eighties and nineties. The Cali Cartel, a drug cartel based around the city and the Valle del Cauca, was once renowned and compared to the Russian KGB by the American Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) which called it “the most powerful crime syndicate in history.” At the height of its reign, they were said to have control over 90 per cent of the world’s cocaine market.
Article first appeared on Today Colombia, reposted with permission
