Prison for drug mule caught on Amsterdam train with 75 drug packets inside his body
A 31-year-old man who boarded a train to Salzburg in Amsterdam with 75 packets of drugs in his body was sentenced to 3 years in prison by the Cologne court. In total, the man was carrying nearly 450 grams of cocaine and approximately 300 grams of heroin in his body, the German broadcaster WDR reported.
Customs officers in Cologne caught the man in February. They noticed he was behaving suspiciously and had remarkably little luggage with him. When confronted, he gave contradictory statements about the purpose of his trip and seemed very nervous.
The customs officers decided to test his palms for drugs and found traces of cocaine. The man was taken to a nearby hospital, where a CT scan revealed that he had stuffed basically his entire body full of drugs.
“The man’s entire gastrointestinal tract was full,” Cologne customs spokesperson Jens Ahland said, stressing the danger of smuggling drugs by swallowing them. “It only takes one drug package to burst inside the body, and the man’s life could no longer be saved, even if a doctor were standing right next to him.”
Under medical supervision, the man eventually excreted 75 bags of drugs, with a street value of about €50,000.
In court, the man’s lawyer argued that his client, a Nigerian national who had applied for asylum in Italy, was smuggling drugs because he was desperate for money. The person who gave him the drugs promised him €2,000 for the transport. “He was exploited,” the lawyer argued.
