Burden of the body packer

The levels of amphetamines in the body fluids of drug mules have been measured and correlated with the condition of the drug packaging in their bodies. Kyoko Uekusa and colleagues in Japan from the Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, the Nippon Medical School Chiba Hokusoh Hospital, and Fukuoka University, used GC/MS to determine the concentrations of amphetamine and methamphetamine in the serum, plasma and urine of three travellers who were detained by customs officers on suspicion of being so-called body packers.

As described in Forensic Science International, x-rays and CT scans revealed the presence of cylindrical foreign bodies which appeared to confirm the suspicions. The three men were held in hospital and the packages removed surgically. Two of the men exhibited symptoms of drug intoxication and the serum and plasma levels of both drugs were very high initially, due to rupture of one of the packets inside each of them. The third man also had detectable levels of the drugs in his system, even though he did not show any symptoms of intoxication and the packages were all intact. Either the drugs had leaked from the packages or he was a drug user too.

Through studies of this type "it may be possible to determine the time of an event, such as the time of the rupture of packets, by pharmacokinetic analysis, if fluids are obtained at different time points and the drug and its corresponding metabolites are examined," says Uekusa.