Travelers arriving from Poland at Keflavík International Airport were arrested on Sunday morning after approximately ten kilos of amphetamines were found in their luggage, among other places inside shampoo bottles, by trusty drug detection dog Nelson.

Inside Keflavík Airport. Photo by Geir Ólafsson.

It is one of the largest drug busts at the airport in a long time. The men, who were all sentenced to custody, are believed to have smuggled drugs to Iceland before and the police state they may be about to uproot extensive drug smuggling operations, Fréttablaðið reports.

Two of the men had already passed through customs when Nelson busted the third smuggler. The police suspected he hadn’t been traveling alone and located his two traveling partners in a taxi in Kópavogur.

Following the arrest the fourth suspect was caught; unlike the others he lives in Iceland. He is to remain in custody until April 23 but the others until April 30.

The police are now investigating how often they’ve come to Iceland, what they’ve been doing while in Iceland, and whether they have other accomplices in the country.

On April 6 a man was busted with cocaine at Keflavík International Airport, also hidden inside shampoo bottles.

However, these two cases are not believed to be related as in the earlier case the smuggler was Icelandic and arriving from London. He is to remain in custody until April 20.

According to the police, the smell of shampoo sometimes confuses sniffer dogs and powdery substances in such containers aren’t clearly visible in scanners.

In a third drug smuggling case, an Icelander around 30 years old was arrested at Keflavík International Airport upon arrival from Copenhagen on April 7 after it turned out that he was carrying 200 grams of cocaine inside his body, Morgunblaðið reports.

He was taken to custody but has now been released as the investigation has been completed. No other individuals were arrested in relation to his case.

ESA