Finn dies at airport after swallowing cocaine

A young Finnish man found dead at a Spanish airport last month is thought to have been poisoned after swallowing a large quantity of cocaine. Finnish customs authorities believe that the man was trying to smuggle the class-A drug inside his body at the time of his death.

He and a friend had swallowed around 50 grams of the substance in packets, but the man was found dead at the airport after he declined to board a plane to Finland when he felt unwell. An investigation into his death has not yet been completed but, according to Helsingin Sanomat, he was probably poisoned when the drugs leaked from the packages inside his stomach.

The man’s companion admitted to a flight attendant that he had swallowed the packages after he too began to feel unwell during the flight. Upon landing in Finland, he was taken to a hospital where he excreted the cocaine and was arrested for aggravated drugs crime.

“Smuggling drugs inside the body is very dangerous. The rupture of a package inside the body can lead to immediate poisoning and death”, said Tero Virtanen of Finnish Customs.

According to authorities, Finnish Customs have intercepted around 30 cases of people internally smuggling drugs into Finland in the last three years.