Smuggler caught trying to sneak $16,000 in cocaine onto plane under his wig

Footage has been released of the moment a passenger was pulled aside, and had his hair and scalp sliced open at the airport to reveal a wild find.

Wild footage has captured the disturbing moment a Colombian policeman cut off a man’s wig, exposing a drug smuggler who had hidden $16,000 worth of cocaine under it.

The 40-year-old suspect from Pereira attempted to board a flight from Cartagena to Amsterdam in the Netherlands on Thursday when he was stopped by anti-narcotics police, according to a video shared on X by the Colombian National Police.

The footage showed an officer cutting through what appeared to be the man’s hair and scalp with a pair of scissors, eventually peeling back the wig and revealing a stockpile of drugs.

The smuggler had “more than 400 doses of cocaine,” valued at over $A16,000, inside 19 capsules that were “camouflaged in a wig,” police said in a press release.

“These capsules contained a substance that, after being subjected to the Homologated Preliminary Identification Test (PIPH), tested positive for cocaine,” according to the release

Police peel back a smuggler’s wig in Colombia to reveal $16,000 worth of cocaine.

The video later shows police officers displaying the suspect, who has not been named, behind a table with a sign reading “cocaina,” - Spanish for cocaine.

Police are investigating whether the suspect, who has a history of drug trafficking, was linked to a larger criminal organisation.

The suspect, who has not been named, has a history of drug trafficking, police said.

The suspect has now been “placed at the disposal of the Attorney General’s Office for the crime of trafficking, manufacturing and carrying narcotic substances,” police said.

More than 450 people have been arrested for drug trafficking this year, according to the commander of the Metropolitan Police of Cartagena, Brig. Gen. Gelver Yecid Peña Araque.

More than ‘400 doses’ of cocaine were found concealed in the hairpiece.

Authorities have seized more than 115kg of hallucinogens, including marijuana, coca base and cocaine, police said in the release.

“We are dealing decisive blows against these criminal structures that not only fight over local drug trafficking but are also the generators of different violent acts and other types of crimes that disrupt peace and coexistence,” the general said.

“We continue to insist on the importance of the community being our main ally, providing timely information that helps us identify and locate criminals.”

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and has been republished with permission