GIBRALTAR: Spanish Customs arrested an elderly man who disguised himself as an imam, at Algeciras port in Spain after officers say they found 2 kilos (about 4 pounds) of hash under his robes.
Hash, or hashish, is a cannabis product made of pressed or purified preparations of stalked resin glands, according to a Customs official.
The fake imam, 64-year-old Azad Bishr Levi, was stopped by police as he got off a boat that traveled from Ceuta, on the Moroccan border.
He was going through customs when officers became suspicious of the way he walked, so they questioned him.
“Something about his gait was odd and the way he kept touching his chest made us decide to take a closer look at this religious leader,” a police spokesman said, according to the Daily Express. “When we asked him where he was going he said he was the imam of a mosque in the city of Cadiz in southern Spain and was going to lead a prayer.”
“But when officers called the mosque the leaders there said they had never heard of him,” the spokesman added. “And when officers searched him they found the drugs strapped around his thighs, chest and stomach.”
Drug trafficking is thriving in Morocco and Spain, with smugglers using crop-spraying planes, fishing boats, lorries and even pedalos, to transport hashish between the two countries.
“Concealing packets on or inside the body is not so popular these days because of x-rays,” a police spokesman said.
The bogus imam now faces five years in prison.
