Hungarian man jailed after being caught carrying cocaine inside his body at Valencia airport

The man has been in hospital since his arrest on Monday, expelling cocaine pellets at Valencia General Hospital. Officers from the National Police's Drugs and Organised Crime Unit (Udyco), working with Guardia Civil officers at the airport, arrested him after he arrived on a flight from Brazil via Lisbon.

The arrest took place at around 8pm on Monday. Police investigators had already been alerted as part of an earlier investigation and, as soon as the Hungarian suspect arrived in Spain, officers subjected him to an X-ray of his abdomen.

The scan confirmed their suspicions that he was carrying drugs inside his body.

He was taken to Valencia General Hospital and placed in a ward for detainees, where he has remained under police guard while expelling the cocaine. According to sources consulted by this newspaper, he has already expelled almost half a kilo of the drug.

Before the 72-hour deadline for bringing him before a judge had expired, and while he was still expelling drugs in hospital, Valencia court No. 20, sitting as the duty court, took his statement remotely.

The judge then ordered that he be remanded in custody, taking into account the quantity of drugs he was allegedly attempting to bring into Spain, the heavier penalties associated with an offence involving a significant quantity of drugs and the risk of flight.

The arrest follows several other recent cases involving drug mules at Valencia Airport.

On 9 September, a 35-year-old Nigerian man was arrested after being found to be carrying 1.24 kilos of heroin inside his body. After officers detected suspicious packages in his stomach, he was taken to hospital, where 91 capsules were removed. Analysis confirmed that they contained heroin.

At the end of July, a 29-year-old Brazilian woman was also arrested at the airport after being found to be carrying more than 740 grammes of cocaine in her stomach.

The woman, who had entered Spain on a three-day tourist visa, was taken to Valencia General Hospital to have the drugs removed. She was also remanded in custody.