Peru police seize cocaine hidden inside hospital ambulance
Key Takeaways
- Police found 69 kilograms of cocaine inside a hidden ambulance compartment.
- Two suspects, including a nurse and the driver, were arrested.
- Authorities linked the shipment to the alleged trafficking group "La Cruz Blanca".
Police arrested two suspects after discovering 69 kilograms of cocaine concealed inside a secret compartment in a hospital ambulance.
Peruvian police seized 69 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride hidden inside a specially modified compartment in an ambulance from Cusco, arresting two alleged members of a drug trafficking organisation.
Footage filmed on Sunday shows the ambulance belonging to Kimbiri Hospital in the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro Rivers (VRAEM), one of Peru's main coca-growing regions. Investigators said the vehicle was being used to transport narcotics concealed inside a hidden compartment.
"Personnel from [Grupo] Terna and this region's intelligence had information about the transport of this illicit merchandise in an ambulance from Kimbiri Hospital, Cusco, to the Ayacucho Regional Hospital, carrying a minor who had suffered a traffic accident," said Ayacucho police chief Arturo Valverde.
According to Valverde, officers found the drugs "in a hidden compartment, in the part where the air conditioning is, at the level of the stretcher," where they recovered 13 black packages containing 69 parcels of cocaine hydrochloride marked with a dolphin logo.
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"This package of drugs has different values and abroad, due to its purity, it is worth approximately 30,000 dollars per package in Europe," he specified.
The operation was carried out by Grupo Terna officers and the Directorate of Intelligence outside the Ayacucho Regional Hospital in the district of Andrés Avelino Cáceres Dorregaray after the ambulance had dropped off a patient.
Police arrested the driver, Rubén Sáenz Vega, 38, and nurse Johans León Gutiérrez, 40.
Authorities believe the shipment belonged to the alleged trafficking group "La Cruz Blanca", which is accused of using the ambulance as a front to transport cocaine from the VRAEM to other parts of Peru.
The case has been handed to the Huamanga Provincial Specialised Prosecutor's Office for Illicit Drug Trafficking, which is leading the investigation.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
