A Toronto woman who faked a pregnancy to try to smuggle cocaine was arrested today at Bogota airport by Colombian police. Col. Esteban Arias Melo said 28-year-old Tabitha Leah Ritchie was stopped while trying to board an Air Canada flight in Bogota after an inspector noted that her belly was unusually cold and hard. He says police discovered a false belly made of latex taped to her body and they found 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of cocaine.
Ritchie had entered Colombia in August 6, and was about to board a flight to return to Toronto, when a policewoman asked her how long she had been pregnant. "[The Canadian] didn't like the question, which made the official suspicious. Instinctively, she then very delicately touched the lady's belly, realising it was too hard and extremely cold," said Arias Melo, who's the deputy director of Colombia's police anti-narcotics section.
The woman allegedly said she was seven months pregnant, but that only made police officers become more suspicious. After performing a body search, the police found two sealed bags stashed inside the latex belly, which contained 2 kilos of cocaine. Ritchie will be charged with drug trafficking, possession and production and could be sentenced to between five and eight years in prison, said Colombian authorities. The drugs would have had a street value of around $60,000, Colombian police said.
Government officials say 874 foreigners are currently being held in the country's jails, the majority on drug charges. This year, nearly 150 people were caught with drugs at Bogota's airport, and about a third of them were foreign nationals, according to the Colombian authorities.
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