Man flings €3.3M cocaine stash out of hotel window

The man, known only as P.G., is thought to have entered his room on the eighth floor of the four-star Tryp Valencia Oceanic Hotel on Friday evening.

For unknown reasons. he then decided to fling one of his suitcases out of the window.

It landed on an interior patio where hotel staff noticed that it was full of cocaine and alerted the police, according to Spanish daily El País.

When officers arrived, they found the man in the same part of the hotel, waiting for a replacement door key as he had locked himself out after going to look for his 'lost' luggage.

The suspect was carrying a second suitcase similar to the one he had recently defenestrated and reacted violently to the police presence.

He resisted arrest but was subdued without too much difficulty, according to hotel guests who witnessed the incident.    

The man's room was later found to have been damaged during his short occupancy. Thebath was filled with water, the air conditioning grille had been removed and the bathroom ceiling was damaged. It is thought that he had attempted to hide the drugs there before choosing to throw them from the window.

Police reported that 55 kilos of cocaine were recovered from the two suitcases, with a street value of over €3.3 million ($4.4 million).

The arrested man has no previous criminal record but a hotel worker described him to Las Provincias newspaper as appearing "spaced out, with a lost look".

Police sources speculated that the man may have become paranoid and acted under the belief that rival drug traffickers were closing in on him.