The risk of body packing: a case of a fatal cocaine overdose

The process of swallowing or inserting illegal packets of drugs for the purpose of evading law enforcement officers carries risks other than criminal charges. It can be fatal. Individuals engaged in such actives are called “Body Packers” or “Mules”. The most frequent cause of the death among body pa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inForensic science international Vol. 151; no. 1; pp. 81 - 84
Main Authors Koehler, Steven A., Ladham, Shaun, Rozin, Leon, Shakir, Abdulrezak, Omalu, Bennet, Dominick, Joseph, Wecht, Cyril H.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Kidlington Elsevier Ireland Ltd 30.06.2005
Elsevier
The Lancet Publishing Group, a division of Elsevier Science Ltd
Elsevier Limited
Subjects
Abdomen
Adult
Atherosclerosis
Biological and medical sciences
Body packers
Cocaine
Cocaine - blood
Cocaine - poisoning
Crime
Death
Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors - blood
Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors - poisoning
Drug dealing
Drug Overdose
Drug traffic
Drugs
Fatal Outcome
Fatalities
Foreign Bodies - complications
Forensic Medicine
Forensic sciences
Gastrointestinal Tract - pathology
Health aspects
Hotels & motels
Humans
Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects)
Male
Medical sciences
Mules
Overdose
Packaging
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Jamaica
Florida
United States > US
Mules
Death
Cocaine
Body packers
Fatal curse
Forensic science
CNS stimulant
Illicit drug
Legal medicine
Psychotropic
Mortality
Overdosing
Risk
Forensic aspect
Fatal course
Local anesthetic
Case study
Ester
Risk factor
Overdose
Drug of abuse
Transport
Body packer syndrome
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Summary:The process of swallowing or inserting illegal packets of drugs for the purpose of evading law enforcement officers carries risks other than criminal charges. It can be fatal. Individuals engaged in such actives are called “Body Packers” or “Mules”. The most frequent cause of the death among body packers is acute drug intoxication due to rupture of the package(s) within the gastrointestinal tract. We present the first documented case of a body packer that died from cocaine intoxication following the rupture of packets of cocaine in Western Pennsylvania.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0379-0738
1872-6283
DOI:10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.07.005