MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Aymara priest who blessed Bolivian president arrested with 240 kilos of cocaine

The stash of liquid cocaine was seized at Valentin Mejillones home

The Aymara priest who blessed Bolivian President Evo Morales at an inauguration ceremony four years ago has been arrested in possession of 240 kilos of cocaine, police said.

Anti-drugs police in Bolivia found a cocaine laboratory in the home of priest Valentin Mejillones. His son and a Colombian couple were also detained. The stash of liquid cocaine seized in the raid was valued at 240,000 US dollars.

Mejillones told local media he had been tricked by the Colombians, and Vice President Álvaro García said Morales had not chosen the priest to preside at the traditional swearing-in ceremony at the sacred Tiwanaku ruins.

“He was a person who moved within the Andean religious structure,” García told reporters. “Whether he's a priest or not, if he's committed a crime, he won't get any kind of protection when he faces justice.”

Morales, an Aymara Indian and former coca farmer was sworn in as Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2006.

On the eve of his inauguration at the presidential palace, he donned a ceremonial red poncho as Mejillones presented him with a staff of command representing the 36 nationalities of Bolivia's indigenous majority.

Bolivia is rated by anti drug organizations as the world's third-biggest cocaine producer, but limited coca cultivation is legal and leaves of the plant are commonly chewed or brewed in a tea to ward off the effects of altitude.

Coca leaves chewed or brewed or used in religious ceremonies has been common in the Andean highlands for centuries well before the white man set foot.