Drugs dealers are disguising themselves as food delivery drivers to continue dealing drugs, Interpol warns.
Police in the UK, Ireland, Malaysia and Spain have reported instances of drug couriers posing as food delivery workers, while carrying illicit drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, ketamine and ecstasy, according to the international police organization.
In April, police in Spain arrested seven men dressed as food delivery drivers delivering cocaine and marijuana by bicycle, motorcycle and car. The drugs were concealed in the false bottom of a food delivery backpack, the Interpol report said.
In another case in Ireland, officers recovered 8 kilograms (17 ponds) of cocaine as well as two handguns hidden in pizza boxes.
“Delivery riders may be complicit or unwitting links in drug transportation,” it said in a statement. “In cases brought to Interpol’s attention, suspects were sometimes falsely disguised as food delivery drivers. At other times, legitimate food delivery drivers knowingly and willingly delivered drugs on behalf of criminal organisations for financial gain.”
“Legitimate food delivery drivers have also been used as unwitting drug mules,” said the organization, which coordinates data from 194 international police forces.
“In one Malaysian case, a food delivery rider in the Gombak district of Kuala Lumpur contacted police and asked for his food package to be inspected after he became suspicious. The rider had been tasked with delivering a single order of Indian flatbread yet the parcel weighed approximately 11 kilograms.”
“Criminals continue to adapt their activities to a world upended by Covid-19,” said Stephen Kavanagh, Interpol’s Executive Director of Police Services.
