Top Eight Methods of Smuggling Drugs

Bу stomach

One of the most common methods of smuggling small amounts of drugs is taking the drugs orally. Drug mules numb their throats to ingest large quantities of capsules, latex balloons (often condoms or gloves) or packets filled with drugs.

This type of drug mule is sometimes referred to as a ‘swallower’ or ‘internal carrier’, while this practice of smuggling is called ‘body packing’ or ‘body stuffing’. Drug mules must often take laxatives (слабительные средства) to remove the drugs in what is described as a very painful removal process.

A great danger – and often even death – may await the ‘swallower’ if the packet or capsule bursts during transit.

In 2007, a 23-year-old British woman suffered a massive heart attack on a transatlantic flight after having swallowed 60 packets of cocaine. She was dead by the time the plane made an emergency landing.

By Puppies

In 2006, authorities caught a Colombian drug trafficking organization trying to smuggle liquid drugs in puppies. 10 people were charged with the heroin scheme, and all of the puppies were rescued, though three of the six died of infection from the incisions that were made in their stomachs. The remaining dogs grew up and are living healthy lives in Colombia.

By Children

Authorities intercepted a Mexican woman in May 2008 who was trying to smuggle approximately 20lbs. of drugs into the UK by strapping the drugs to the legs of two children ages 11 and 13.

The woman was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in prison and the children were taken into the custody of child services. The practice of using children to smuggle drugs through airports and prisons has become an all too common practice in recent years.

By Bugs

A Customs official in the Netherlands in 2007 discovered a shipment of 100 dead beetles – chock full of cocaine. It appeared as though the bugs had been cut open and stuffed with the drugs and then glued back together again.

By Tombstone

In 2000, a U.S. Customs official stopped a man trying to enter the country with a tombstone in his pickup truck. Customs officers with a narcotics dog detained the man with potential drug material hidden inside the tombstone.

By Computer

At Miami International Airport in March 2008, Customs officials discovered a laptop originating in Colombia that contained five packets of heroin in the computer and six packets concealed in the power supply. The computer was not operational at the time of its recovery.

By Bra

A busty woman was busted entering Britain in January 2008, when Customs officials discovered she was wearing a bra full of cocaine.

Exercise 8. Answer the following questions:

1. Why do smugglers invent new methods of concealment?

2. What are ‘drug mules’?

3. Why are children and women used for smuggling?

4. Why are drugs smuggled mainly through airports?

5. What countries at risk are mentioned in the text?

Exercise 9. Drug mules are people who smuggle drugs in their clothing, shoes or bags, or within their body cavities.

Test your knowledge of how drug mules work:

1. According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, what proportion of the cocaine produced in South America goes to the U.S. and Europe?

a) 50 per cent

b) 65 per cent

c) 75 per cent

d) 85 per cent

2. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, how does most South American heroin enter the U.S.?

a) cargo ships

b) private yachts

c) commercial flights

d) commercial trucks

3. Drug mules tend to carry only small amounts of a drug, compared with the amounts smuggled by trucks, container ships or other vehicles. What is the term for this modest amount of drug smuggling, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs?

a) ant

b) bee traffic

c) burritos

d) banditos

4. According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, what proportion of worldwide cocaine production is intercepted by authorities?

a) 16 per cent

b) 26 per cent

c) 32 per cent

d) 42 per cent

5. What is the term used to describe a person who swallows a drug packet in order to conceal it in his or her gastrointestinal tract?

a) goods gobbler

b) body packer

c) cookie monster

d) all of the above

6. Which of the following is a term used to describe a group of drug mules who travel together on foot?

a) mule train

b) mobile Mollies

c) pack of asses

d) none of the above

7. What proportion of foreign women imprisoned in the U.K. are Jamaican drug mules?

a) less than 10 per cent

b) 15 per cent

c) 25 per cent

d) more than 50 per cent

Exercise 10. Read Text 3 andask other people in the class about methods of spotting drug mules.

Text 3