BOGOTA, Colombia — Police stopped an ambulance transporting 470 pounds of cocaine across Colombia Tuesday; five people, including a doctor running for mayor, were arrested.
The ambulance had medical mission emblems that made it easier to evade authorities and slip through traffic as it drove across the country, reported the Latin America Herald Tribune.
“Inside the ambulance, assigned to the southwestern municipality of Puerto Caicedo, was the driver with a doctor, an operating room nurse, a general nurse and a patient; we can say it came with the whole kit,” said Gen. Rodolfo Palomino, chief of police in Bogota.
Police became suspicious because the ambulance was driving on a route that crossed much of Colombia. Police found the drug cache inside the ambulance.
“All the occupants knew what kind of cargo they were hiding, and though the whole act seemed perfect, they failed to tell the same story during the search,” the police said in a statement.