Three women tried to sneak cocaine in their habits in Colombia while dressing as fake nuns.

The women, 20, 32 and 37, dressed up as nuns in an attempt to sneak cocaine through Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport in San Andres Sunday after arriving from Bogota.

Each woman was carrying two kilos, or 12 pounds, of cocaine under their back and white costumes.

Columbian police asked "the nuns" to step aside when the three women appeared nervous, and the fabric of there dresses didn't look right.

The chief of the island's judicial police says more than four pounds of cocaine (two kilos) were strapped to the legs of each woman. Davila says all three broke into tears and launched into tales of financial hardship.

None of the three is a nun, and all were arrested early Saturday and jailed on drug trafficking charges.

San Andres is just off Nicaragua's coast along a longtime smuggling route for cocaine from mainland Colombia.

The three woman were hysterically crying telling police they smuggled the drugs because of recent financial hardships. 

Drug trafficking is big international business.  A UN report said the global drug trade generated an estimated US$321.6 billion in 2003. 

The drug smugglers can make more money in one day than they can acquire in years.  It is often alluring for a person in financial turmoil to be sweet-talked into the illegal activity.  But if caught, a person can spend years to life in prisons with sickening conditions.  A great deal of prisoners die in jail from violence.

People have been experimenting with drug smuggling methods for over a century.  People can ingest the drug, strap it to their bodies, hide it under a "cast," make a secret opening in their luggage, stuff it in a doll or stuffed animal, fill hairspray containers, ect,.

But dressing as nuns...now that's a new one. 

Prisons in Colombia have a reputation of being overcrowded and dangerous.  The three women are looking at a minimum of three years in these horrific jails.  No matter how bad off a person can be economically, it is never worth taking away your freedom.