ROME - A Mexican man who arrived in Rome saying he wanted to become a priest was arrested at the airport with 6.5 kilogrammes of cocaine, the Telenews agency reported Wednesday.

The 33-year-old, who flew to Rome from Mexico City via Paris, had concealed the drug in super-thin vacuum packs inside the dust jackets of long-playing vinyl records, the airport news agency said.

Italian police also arrested a Spaniard who toted some five kilos (11 pounds) of cocaine in an inflatable mattress, Telenews said, without saying when the two men were arrested or how their illicit cargo was discovered.

The street value of the two hauls was estimated at some 10 million euros (S$20.2 million), Telenews said.