HAVANA: The General Customs of the Republic of Cuba seized 104.68 kilos of drugs in 46 cases of illicit traffic registered from January to December 2015, reported today Juventud Rebelde daily.
According to the newspaper, of the total, 43 cases were detected at the Havana International Airport Jose Marti (AIJM), two at the international cargo terminal and one in the Special Development Zone of Mariel.
As the head of the Department of Customs Confrontation at the AIJM, Niurbis Alonso, of the total kilograms seized, 73.43 were of cocaine, 30.46 marihuana and 0.793 of synthetic cannabinoids, that is, designer drugs or synthesis resulting from the combination between natural and modified substances.
Of the 43 operations of drugtrafficking identified through the air channel at the AIJM, over 20 were so-called packages for other people.
Frequently, passengers travel with packages from friends and relatives to do them a favor or they sell part of the pounds of their luggage to the person who wants to send some package to the country, said Alonso.
Most of the time they do not open the contents of the package and if we detect any item or substance whose import is prohibited, the passenger will not remain exempt from the penal sanction it entails, even though he declares not knowing the situation, warned the specialist.
Also, 10 cases of those registered at the AIJM belonged to the so-called â��greedy mulesâ�Ö, persons who use their bodies as reservoire for the import of such substances.
All this occurs, not through its hiding inside socks, shoes, underwear and envelopes stuck to the body, but through deposits of flexible materials that are later introduced in the rectum or the vagina, as well as in some types of prostheses.
Those persons, of course, are exposed to the danger of absortion of those substances by their bodies and accidents are many times lethal, due to cuts or total ruptura of one of the recipients used, warned the official.
It is difficult to identify this type of passenger, but the customs personnel constantly develops its abilities to comply with our mission of confrontation, she stressed.
Alonso also said the hiding of drugs in screws, hydraulic jacks, toys, cleaning sprays, food boxes, double lining of luggage, bag rods, chair legs, shoes, pocketbooks and other ítems add to the list of new ways to opérate from passengers mainly from South America.
