Successful treatment of body packers with many packages

Abstract

During the last decade, increase rate of the drug traffic and those customs, have led the smugglers to attempt various methods. One of these methods of illicit drug smuggling is body packing. Body packers are people who illegally carry drugs, mostly cocaineas well as opium and/or heroin, concealed within their bodies. The packets are inserted in the mouth, rectum, or vagina in order to get across borders without being detected. The smuggling of drugs by internal concealment of these illicit goods is a growing problem for custom services and law enforcement officials, not to mention risks for the carrier from a medical point of view. Individuals engaged in such activities called body-packer. Here we present 11 cases of body-packers who were part of a smuggling gang, arrested by police and admitted to our hospital in a period of 24 hours. These 11 men were part of 90 body-packers who arrested in Tehran. Radiological examination including plain abdominal radiographs and CT scan images demonstrated the presence of multiple enteric packages. Non-surgical conservative evacuation of bowel contents was induced by the administration of laxatives. Analysis of the packages, revealed crack and cocaine as concealed drugs.