A woman has been charged with drug smuggling after she used 9lbs worth of marijuana to form a fake baby bump.
The unnamed smuggler and her male friend were travelling on a bus from Mendoza to Santa Cruz in Argentina on Thursday, November 14, when they were stopped by authorities at a checkpoint.
Officers reportedly searched the man’s bag and found he was carrying two bricks of cannabis, though that was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to what the pair were hiding. The find made police suspicious, so they continued their search and stumbled upon an even bigger stash.
PixabayPhotos shared on Twitter show the ‘pregnant’ woman was wearing a white tank top which stretched over her round belly, though what the shirt contained certainly wasn’t the bundle of joy police might have been expecting.
In order to transport even more weed, the woman had used glue to create a fake, wearable stomach, inside of which was another 15 cannabis bricks held together with a starch-based paste.
The stash had been carefully constructed to form a round package which, when stuffed under a t-shirt, somewhat resembled a pregnant belly – though not enough to fool the authorities, clearly.
Police seized the stash and photos show altogether the ‘baby’ weighed about four kilos.
Patricia Bullrich, Minister of Security in Argentina, shared images of the huge hoard and described the situation as a ‘Narco Pregnancy’.
She wrote (translated):
She made a belly out of paste, hid 15 cannabis bricks inside it and faked a pregnancy before trying to take it from Mendoza to Santa Cruz.
At a police control the pretend mum-to-be and her accomplice were arrested. This is how she tried to smuggle the drugs.
¡NARCO EMBARAZO! Fabricó una panza con engrudo, escondió 15 paquetes de marihuana y simulando un embarazo, intentó trasladarla de #Mendoza a #SantaCruz. En un control de @gendarmeria detuvimos a la falsa embarazada y a su cómplice. ¡Así se las ingenió para traficar la droga! pic.twitter.com/6Lw2bAaOch
— Patricia Bullrich (@PatoBullrich) November 13, 2019
A police spokesperson confirmed the bust, explaining the pair were Argentinian nationals who were both arrested after being caught, the MailOnline report.
In a statement, the spokesperson said:
Officers discovered a passenger was carrying two cannabis bricks in a black bag.
A young woman was beside him who appeared to be pregnant. She was asked to leave the vehicle and it was confirmed she was also carrying drugs but no baby inside her.
A number of amused Twitter users have shared their thoughts on the bust, with one woman describing her own cunning smuggling experience.
She commented:
Shes [sic] creative. Got to give her that. She should’ve put it in her suitcase. I got two bottles of authentic wormwood Absinth in the US in mine in 93 on my flight from Czechoslovakia.
Shes creative. Got to give her that. She should've put it in her suitcase. I got two bottles of authentic wormwood Absinth in the US in mine in 93 on my flight from Czechoslovakia.
— Lynn Roberts (@moonshadow234) November 14, 2019
The not-so-pregnant woman was charged with drug smuggling following her arrest.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.