D-RUG RUNNERS: Traffickers Seize Nine Kilos Of Heroin Woven Into Carpets

Drug traffickers who stitched tubes of heroin into two carpets and tried to smuggle them across Europe have been seized by police in Spain.

Officers stopped the two suspects at a bus station in Barcelona after a police sniffer dog picked out their luggage in a routine stop.

Inside one bag, police found two rugs specially stitched to contain strengthened tubes of heroin running through the inside.

Police video footage shows an officer using a pocket knife to unpick the stitches revealing the tubes.

Local media report that the pair - both Afghan nationals aged 28 and 36 - had been attempting to get the rugs through to France.

The two men - one of them an asylum seeker in France - have been held in custody.

Crime gangs are increasingly coming up with new ways to transport drugs between European countries, the Spanish National police said.

Criminal organisations try to introduce heroin into Spain, coming from Afghanistan and Pakistan, then smuggle it into northern Europe, mainly in France and the United Kingdom.

When it reaches the destination point, they ultimately treat the substance and reverse the process they used to transport it.