Customs Battles Heroin Traffickers Who Swallow Drug-Filled Condoms

Armed with rubber gloves and laxatives, U.S. Customs agents have spent this week combating a gutsy type of heroin trafficker.

Known as “swallowers,” traffickers load dozens of condoms with illegal drugs, lubricate them in oil and ease them down their throats before trying to slip into the country at international bridges and airports, authorities said Friday.

Agents say a single load can be worth about $1 million.

Customs officials in Texas said swallowers were arrested this week in Eagle Pass, Houston and in Del Rio as they tried to enter the United States from Mexico.

The pellets, about the size of batteries or shotgun shells, are stored in the swallower’s stomach and retrieved through bowel movements.

A pound of heroin can be worth up to $1 million, but authorities warn that smuggling by swallowing is extremely risky. If a condom breaks, it means death.

“The second this stuff gets into your bloodstream, you are gone,” said Steven Hooper, deputy agent-in-charge for Customs in Houston.

Three alleged swallowers from Colombia have been caught in Texas this week, including Favio Zapata, 38, who spent Friday passing evidence in a heavily guarded toilet at Val Verde Regional Medical Center in Del Rio.

Officers recovered 90 condoms from the suspect, said Customs supervisor David Green.

Zapata arrived at the U.S. border in a taxi cab and tried to enter the country with a fake Guatemalan passport, agents said.

After he raised the suspicions of border guards, his stomach was X-rayed, revealing the pellets.

Earlier in the week, in the nearby border city of Eagle Pass, Customs agents caught a man who allegedly swallowed three pounds of heroin. Another man with a smaller load was arrested at a Houston airport.

“Just what one of these guys have in their stomach is worth more than a million dollars on the street,” he said.

It was not immediately known if the week’s cases were related, but in the past, swallowers have been connected to trafficking organizations based in cities such as Houston, Chicago and New York, Hooper said.

“From what I understand, they train in South America to get used to it,” Hooper said of swallowing condoms. “The natural reaction is to spit it up.”

When suspected swallowers are detained, their stomachs are X-rayed. If authorities find the suspicious pellets, the person is given a laxative and taken to a hospital.

From there, it’s just a waiting game.

“The record may be five days,” Hooper said. “Every once in a while, they’ll have to have them removed surgically.”