Drug mules risk ghastly death for paymasters

Criminals go to extreme and sometimes peculiar lengths to smuggle drugs.

Just last month, SA Revenue Services customs officials prevented drugs with a street value of more than R4.5-million from being smuggled into the country.

"We are amazed at the lengths people go to when trying to smuggle drugs into the country," said SARS spokesman Marika Muller. "They even risk their own health and life by carrying the drugs internally."

Cocaine "bullets" are smuggled in the anus and vagina, according to Muller.

"Should a 'bullet' burst or perforate internally, there is a very high chance that the drug mule will die a really painful death even if medical assistance is close by."

Some of the more peculiar smuggling methods uncovered at OR Tambo International Airport include:

• Unclaimed luggage from Argentina. When customs officials had a closer look, they found "hardened starched clothes soaked in liquid cocaine". The drugs weighed 6kg and had a street value of more than R1.6-million;
• ·In May, a man travelling from Sao Paulo, Brazil, hid fruit in his luggage. The fruit was filled with 4kg of cocaine with a street value of more than R1-million;
• Cocaine valued at R61855 was strapped to the soles of a man's shoes. He, too, had travelled from Sao Paulo; and
• A kilogram of liquid cocaine in plastic bullets was found in the stomach of a man when he was X-rayed.

One of the unsung heroes of these discoveries is Caesar, a SARS's drug-detecting dog. Last month the Labrador sniffed out R874608 worth of cocaine wrapped in shirts in the luggage of a male passenger.

In March, Caesar pinned down liquid cocaine valued at about R1-million that had been concealed in three wine bottles.