“Bolirus” .. the journey of death by smuggling drugs by swallowing hashish capsules

Two days ago, the Spanish Civil Guard managed to arrest a Moroccan woman, about 44 years old, at Barcelona airport after it was found that she was carrying 187 capsules of hashish, equivalent to two kilograms.

It is one of the “Bolirus” or “human mules”, which risks its life and freedom for a handful of money, carrying the shipments of death and a time bomb that may explode at any moment.

The scene looks closer to an exciting movie, but it is a daily reality in international smuggling networks, as man becomes just a cheap transportation for profitable trade.

Journey

Behind every “human mule” is a story of suffering that prompted its owner to gambling with his life, to find himself in the grip of gangs that do not hesitate to sacrifice them at the first mistake, because death here does not come with a bullet, but rather a capsule explosion inside the intestine.

Before going into the journey of death, smugglers are trained to swallow capsules in special ways, which require control of breathing and expanding the throat to overcome the natural reaction to the body, as every “mule” can swallow about 200 capsules. After that, it is imposed on the “Bolirus” to refrain from eating and drinking and reducing the activity of the intestine through special medications, until it reaches its destination where the capsules are extracted under strict control and strict guarding to prevent any treachery.

Alternative ways

Dr. Mohamed Benaissa, head of the Northern Observatory for Human Rights, believes that the resort to drug smuggling networks into new methods, such as harnessing individuals to swallow drugs loaded with drugs despite the grave health risks that threaten them, reflects the growing security pressure on these networks.

Benaissa said, in a statement to the electronic newspaper Hespress, that these transformations come as a result of the strong security strikes received by the smuggling gangs in the recent period, especially after the discovery of the Ceuta tunnel and the arrest of a number of politicians and elements of the Spanish Civil Guard involved in smuggling networks, which prompted these gangs to search for alternative roads that allow them to continue their illegal activities.

The same human rights actor added that the control of these new methods of smuggling faces great challenges, as it depends mainly on the experience and skill of security and customs officers, in addition to their intelligence capabilities in monitoring suspicious behavior, noting that the individuals involved in such operations often show clear disturbances during the inspection operations at the border crossings, which may help the security men reveal their attempts, but it remains a difficult bet in light of the development Smuggling methods.

Narrowing the screws

Dr. Ahmed Dardari, head of the International Center for Crisis and Policy Control and Policy, said that the intensification of joint security efforts between the Moroccan authorities and their Spanish counterparts in the face of criminal activities, especially drug smuggling, pushes gangs to develop their methods and circumvent control mechanisms at checkpoints.

The Master Coordinator of the Strategic Management of Security Policies, in a statement to Hespress, stated that the tightening of the screws on traditional smuggling activities led to the introduction of more complicated ways, most notably drug smuggling through what is known as “human mules”, highlighting that this data imposes urgent questions about ways to enhance security cooperation and develop advanced technologies to reveal these criminal methods, in addition to the necessity of anticipating gang plans that It always seeks to devise new ways to pass its illegal shipments.

The same source stated that the seizure of a Moroccan woman carries in her guts 187 capsules of drugs, reflects the development of smuggling operations, adding that these new methods are imposed on the Moroccan and Spanish security services to develop monitoring and monitoring tools, and to enhance intelligence and technological cooperation to combat international drug smuggling, especially with the joint security campaigns that have succeeded in reducing the traditional methods of smugglers.

The head of the International Center for Crisis and Policy Control and Policy Control stated that drug smuggling methods are no longer confined to a specific domain, which requires that security and intelligence cooperation between Rabat and Madrid exceed the traditional approaches that are no longer sufficient to counter the development of criminal gangs specialized in smuggling human beings, drugs and contraband across the Mediterranean, but it has become necessary to raise the level of security challenges using advanced techniques to confront these threats Which affects the security and social stability of the countries of the region.

Dardari concluded his statement by stressing that the reality imposes the necessity of installing advanced scanning devices (scanners) in various checkpoints, to enhance the ability of the security services to thwart smuggling operations through land and sea ports, and that raising the level of coordination between Moroccan security institutions and their Spanish counterparts, and providing them with the latest monitoring and tracking technologies, is a basic step towards reducing the activities of smuggling networks that exploit the gaps Security between the two banks of the Mediterranean.