Colombian man arrested in Spain trying to smuggle cocaine under toupee

A Colombian man was detained at Barcelona's international airport after half a kilo of cocaine was found hidden under an over-sized toupee, Spanish police said on Tuesday.

Arriving on a flight from Bogota, the man attracted police attention as he looked nervous and had a disproportionately large hairpiece under his hat. They found a package stuck to his head with about €30,000 (£27,000) of cocaine.

"There is no limit to the inventiveness of drug traffickers trying to mock controls," said the police statement.

The statement enclosed a photo of a middle-aged man - apparently still wearing the toupee though with his eyes blocked in the image - but gave no more details of his identity.

Over 100 kilos of cocaine were seized by Spanish police at the Barcelona-El Prat airport in 2018.

The Colombian was detained at the end of June.

Colombia's global cocaine trade is valued at an estimated $10bn per year.