Heroin body packer's death in Haryana; India: A case report

Mystifying Toxidrome: A Case of Heroin Body Packer Syndrome

“…Drug trafficking is a global illicit trade, continuously monitored by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (www.unodc.org) and many countries are signatory to international Conventions (e.g., Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971 and the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988, http://cbn.nic.in); however, each country's legal policy controls it independently. Trafficking is much more prevalent in India due to its geographical location, but, only four body packer syndromes are reported in literature till date, two with cocaine (Sureka et al, 2013), one with heroin (Jakhar et al, 2013) and one with cannabis (Barnett and Codd, 2002). We report a case of heroin body packer syndrome, presenting as opioid toxidrome, recovered after both medical and surgical treatment, thus confirming that it is an existing problem in India.…”

“…Indian law prohibits manufacture of heroin, but it is being illegally manufactured in clandestine laboratories from raw opium and smuggled due to high market price. India's geographical location is very suitable for heroin trafficking as it is located between two of the world's largest illicit drug producing regions, 'golden triangle' in east (mainly Myanmar, Thailand and Laos) and 'golden crescent' in west (mainly Afghanistan and Pakistan) with cultivation of heroin in Uttar Pradesh 'golden quadrangle' (Varanasi, Lucknow, Bareilly, Badauin), Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh (Jakhar et al, 2013).…”

A Case Study about Death by the Consumption of the Packaged Drugs Referred to Legal Medicine Center of Shiraz, Iran

“…Toxicological analysis of the powder samples from the damaged package and other 48 packages was performed and was found positive for heroin, caffeine and codeine. This case was unique in the sense that cause of death was intoxication caused by leakage of heroin from damaged packages detected at autopsy and demonstrates that body packing is an existing problem in India [18].…”

Sudden Death Due To Acute Cocaine Toxicity—Excited Delirium in a Body Packer

“…A "body packer" or "mule" is an individual who smuggles illicit drugs by intracorporeal methods for the purpose of evading law enforcement (25,29,30). A host of drugs have been transported through these means, including cocaine (23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)34,35), methamphetamine/amphetamine (36)(37)(38), opiates (27,30,39), and phenacetin/cocaine (40). These smugglers wrap the illicit drugs in plastic bags, balloons, or condoms, and subsequently swallow or insert the items into a body orifice (25).…”