Fake 'Islamic preacher' arrested for drug smuggling
AN elderly man posing as an 'Islamic preacher' was arrested while going through customs after police found two kilos of cannabis hidden under his robes.
The fake Imam was stopped by Spanish officers who noticed his unusal "gait" as he got off a boat in the city of Algeciras in Andalusia after arriving from the city of Ceuta on the Moroccan border.
As the 64-year-old was going through customs, officers became suspicious of the way he was walking and pulled him over for questioning.
And It wasn't until cops searched his robes that they made the shocking discovery of the class-b drug.
A police spokesman said: "Something about his gait was odd and the way he kept touching his chest made us decide to take a closer look at this religious leader.
"When we asked him where he was going he said he was the imam of a mosque in the city of Cadiz in southern Spain and was going to lead a prayer.
omething about his gait was odd and the way he kept touching his chest made us decide to take a closer look at this religious leader
"But when officers called the mosque the leaders there said they had never heard of him.
"And when officers searched him they found the drugs strapped around his thighs, chest and stomach."
Drug trafficking between Morocco and Spain is a flourishing business, with hashish being brought in on crop-spraying planes, fishing boats, lorries and even pedalos.
They are then dumped on beaches the length of the Spanish coast where they are picked up by trucks and taken to their final destination.
"Concealing packets on or inside the body is not so popular these days because of x-rays," a police spokesman added.
The fake imam now faces 5 years behind bars.
