The agonising death of a drug ‘swallower’ on board a flight from Lisbon to Dublin highlights one of the more disturbing methods used by traffickers to smuggle narcotics by air.
Gardaí and customs officers say that many of those used in this fashion are typically “at the bottom of the ladder”, who agree, or are sometimes forced, to ingest and smuggle drugs as a “last resort” to earn money or repay a debt.
Sources said it is “very dangerous” for the person, given the risk of one of the ingested pellets bursting.
The scale of the trade has fluctuated over the years, but, according to domestic and international experts, remains a standard method of smuggling by air.
A Europol report said swallowers, also known as ‘body packers’, are regularly used by traffickers, who frequently apply the ‘shotgun approach’.
This involves sending a number of swallowers on one flight and calculating that, if customs catch one passenger, another two or three will get through undetected.
Source: Cormac O'Keeffe, Irish Examiner, 21/10/15
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