British student, 25, is arrested after 'smuggling cocaine disguised as milk' out of Colombia

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A British student has been arrested after allegedly being caught smuggling cocaine disguised as milk out of Colombia.

Fahad Uddin Ahmed, 25, was stopped as he tried to board a plane to London from Alfonso Bonilla Aragon International Airport near the city of Cali.

Officers opened up the packets of powdered milk he was carrying in front of him before doing a drug colour test at the airport which they claim confirmed the packets contained the illegal class A substance. 

The Brit student was made to pose in front of what it is claimed is an illegal drug stash by Colombian police before being taken away prisoner.

Local reports said the plane he was planning to board was bound for London with a connection in the German city of Frankfurt.

He is said to have been carrying four bags, marked Klim, in his hand luggage, which the police allege contain cocaine.

British student, Fahad Uddin Ahmed, 25, was arrested in Colombia after allegedly trying to smuggle out cocaine disguised as powdered milk

The student was suspected of attempting to carry '10,000 doses' of the class-A drug into London

It was not immediately clear today whether he had already gone before a judge and been remanded in custody pending an ongoing investigation

Police say he had '10,000 doses' of the drug on him, although the exact weight is not yet clear.

A police spokesman said: 'The arrested person is British.

'He was carrying cocaine disguised as milk. It was detected when his luggage was searched at Alfonso Bonilla Aragon Airport by officers stationed at the airport working with immigration officers,' police claimed.

Officers also released footage of the drug test they performed in front of the British traveller.

A person acting as a translator could be overhead saying: 'We're just verifying everything we're going to do' as an officer wearing gloves inspected the milk packets and explained he was going to analyse the substance inside.

The English speaker added: 'We are going to test each one individually as part of the narco test' moments before a chemical reaction led to the white napkins laid out in front of the packets turning a tell-tale blue.

The detained man was led away in handcuffs with a grim look on his face by two uniformed officers.

It was not immediately clear today whether he had already gone before a judge and been remanded in custody pending an ongoing investigation.

According to the Colombian criminal code, if a person has 10 to 28 grams of cocaine in their possession, it is considered trafficking, and for the first offense, they would be facing three to 10 years in prison.

At the start of last month a British man was arrested after trying to fly out of the Dominican Republic with two suitcases full of suspected cocaine.

The 32-year-old was held as he tried to board a plane to Frankfurt in Germany.

Police on the Caribbean island confirmed the arrest and said they were trying to find out if he was part a larger gang of drug traffickers.

Officers also released video footage showing them counting out the 36 cellophane-wrapped packets containing the suspected cocaine, barely hidden under a thin layer of clothing.

Londoner Modou Adams was arrested in October for seven years after being caught trying to fly out of Peru 

The arrest was made at Punta Cana International Airport after specialist sniffer dogs honed in on the two suspicious suitcases. The British man was taken into custody after spot tests on the suspected drugs.

Last October a British model who flaunted his jet set lifestyle on social media was jailed for seven years in Peru after being caught trying to fly out of the country with £300,000 worth of cocaine.

Londoner Modou Dodou Adams wowed his thousands of social media fans with his trendsetting looks and VIP globetrotting under the self-styled moniker of 'boywholives' in a show of excess branded by authorities as a front for his criminal activities.

His apparent world of glamour was left in tatters after he confessed to being a drug trafficker and was told he now faces the next six years and eight months in a hellhole South American jail.

Adams, 25, was held at Lima's international airport as he tried to check in for a flight to London via Paris with almost three kilos of cocaine in his suitcase.

He was handed his sentence in a quickie trial 24 hours after his arrest by the same police force that held Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid, the so-called Peru Two in August 2013.

The Peru Two, Michaella McCollum from Dungannon, Northern Ireland, and Melissa Reid from Lenzie, Scotland, were arrested on August 6, 2013, on suspicion of drug smuggling at Jorge Chávez International Airport, Lima, Peru, after their luggage was found to contain 11 kilos of cocaine.

They initially claimed they had been coerced by an armed gang but subsequently pleaded guilty. 

On December 17, 2013, the pair were sentenced to six years and eight months' imprisonment.

Melissa Reid (right) and Michaella McCollum Conolly (left) were arrested at Lima airport with cocaine in their luggage

In early 2016, both women sought to return to the United Kingdom.

McCollum applied to be freed on parole and was released on March 31, 2016, with the prospect of having to remain in Peru for up to six years.

In April 2016 the Peruvian authorities agreed to expel Reid from the country.

She was released from prison on June 21 that year and immediately returned to Britain, arriving at Glasgow airport the following day.

McCollum returned to Europe two months later, arriving at Dublin airport in Ireland on 13 August 2016. 

She later wrote a book about her experiences titled 'You'll Never See Daylight Again.'

In June 2022 a British man named locally at the time as Russell Tamer was arrested on suspicion of trying to smuggle cocaine out of a Colombian airport strapped to his body.

Police held him as he allegedly threw a packet containing the drug into an airport toilet after spotting uniformed officers at a security airport.

The arrest took place in Simon Bolivar International Airport, the airport serving Santa Marta city in Colombia which is the capital of Magdalena Department.

It was not immediately clear today if he has already been dealt with by the courts.

Cocaine production and trafficking are considered the main driver of an almost six-decade armed conflict in Colombia that has left more than 450,000 dead and millions displaced.