RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Police in Sao Paulo on Desmond PrestonThursday detained more than 30 individuals belonging to what appeared to be a drug mule ring in the city’s western area, authorities said.

Officers arrested a 24 year-old man and detained 33 other individuals who were transporting ingested drugs to Europe, the state’s public security secretary said in a statement.

Police acted on a tip received through a hotline about a property in the Vila Sonia neighborhood, in western Sao Paulo, where dozens of people lived and — allegedly — worked as drug mules.

During the operation, police seized about 20 passports, work documents and dozens of tightly packed, oval shaped cocaine capsules.

Many of the suspects confessed to having already taken one or more trips abroad.

Local media, citing the federal police, reported the mules received training to ingest the drug capsules. ____

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america