Catalonia is widely known in recent times as one of the main producers of high-quality marijuana exported to the rest of Europe. That's why it is even more surprising that last Wednesday, December 25th, Christmas Day, a homeless person who is a regular at El Prat airport raised the alarm after finding two large suitcases abandoned in one of the terminals with around fifty packages of the coveted drug compressed.
The homeless man, a regular Pakistani citizen at the airport, located the two suitcases on Christmas Day and sought out one of the airport's security guards whom he usually sees and trusts to share that he had made an “amazing” discovery. Under the metal stairs of terminal 1 that lead to the hall, the man saw two large suitcases abandoned.
Catalonia has become a great producer, but this time the material came from Thailand
This person is not one of those who usually sleep at the airport, but they do come almost daily in search of leftover food. Upon seeing the suitcases, they opened them, looked inside, and discovered around fifty neatly arranged packages that were undoubtedly drugs.
Airport police seized the material and reviewed the security cameras at El Prat, which monitor virtually the entire facility. They discovered that the two large suitcases had been left abandoned under a staircase for more than twelve hours without anyone paying attention to them.
The images revealed that the suitcases were abandoned by an individual at eleven o'clock at night on the 24th. A man who later reported the alleged loss of those two suitcases at the same airport.
The two pieces of luggage, with drugs inside, still had the tags linking them to the passenger. This person had flown from Bangkok to Barcelona with a layover in Doha, and after picking up the suitcases at the corresponding carousel and exiting to the public area, had left them on the ground floor, below a set of escalators.
The research unit at El Prat airport took charge of the case and located the owner of the luggage at a hotel in Castelldefels, where he was arrested on the 26th. He had checked in at the establishment using the same information he had used to travel to Barcelona.
This Christmas season marks the largest seizure of marijuana ever made by the Mossos d'Esquadra at Barcelona airport. This is a critical facility that has seen an increase in plainclothes and uniformed police officers in recent weeks, aiming to reverse a surge in thefts and violent robberies in the terminals and various parking areas that had spiraled out of control in recent months.
Currently, at the airport facilities, there are around a hundred homeless men and a couple of women living there, who hardly ever leave the terminals.
