A 42-year-old Japanese man was declared dead on a flight from Mexico City to Tokyo after apparently attempting to smuggle hundreds of packets of cocaine from Colombia to Japan in his stomach. According to officials in Mexico, the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in the Mexican state of Sonora after the man, identified only as Udo N, began having a seizure mid-flight.
Authorities say he had flown to Mexico City from the Colombian capital of Bogota.
A statement released by officials says:
Flight attendants noticed a person suffering convulsions and requested permission to make an emergency landing in Hermosillo, Sonora.
When the plane landed at 2:25am on Friday, paramedics boarded it and declared Udo N deceased.
⭕️ Autopsia revela que fueron 246 envoltorios de narcóticos en el cuerpo del pasajero de origen japonés, lo que le ocasionó la muere en el aeropuerto de #Hermosillo.
🔗 Detalles 👉 https://t.co/xlO4FzOKo0 pic.twitter.com/aM59e1gqg4
— Fiscalía de Sonora (@fgjesonora) May 26, 2019
An autopsy discovered 246 1cm by 2.5cm packets of cocaine inside Udo N’s stomach and intestines. His death has been ruled a drug overdose, with the official cause of death listed as swelling of the brain.
Swallowing packaged drugs is a common method of international smuggling; in 2016, an Australian man was caught at Sydney Airport with over a kilo of cocaine in his stomach.
