-from 24heures.ch-

A massive police operation in Yverdon-les-Bains leads to the arrest of 41 people, including 13 dope dealers.
Vaud’s cantonal drug squad has uncovered a major cocaine dealing network in Yverdon-les-Bains. Police officers arrested 41 men as part of a major anti-drug operation that involved raids this week of a downtown area and an asylum-seekers’ residence. Those detained included 13 drug dealers, aged 19 to 45, one of whom was transferred to the canton of Argau. The men are all natives of Africa and nine of them are asylum seekers.

Police launched the first raid on Wednesday in downtown Yverdon, where they took in several suspects for questioning. The second raid took place early Thursday morning in a building housing asylum seekers. Police searched 12 apartments. An investigation established that the building was used by drug traffickers to sell cocaine.

Jean-Christophe Sauterel, cantonal police spokesman, said dealers have become more circumspect. “It is difficult to catch them in the act,” he said. “At the risk of their lives, they carry cocaine in the stomach, bowels or genitals.”

Over 70 police officers were involved in the drug bust. No cocaine has yet been seized but medical checks indicate 10 dealers hid the drug either by swallowing it in bags or otherwise secreting it in their bodies. Authorities said the men would be taken to the local hospital where the cocaine would be removed.