BODY OF MAN FOUND IN BANANA SHIPMENT

Stowaway carried cocaine from Columbia

Workers unloading bananas at a Jessup wholesaler made a shocking discovery
yesterday: the body of a 35-year-old South American man who died during a
weeklong effort to sneak into the United States by traveling with the fruit
shipment.

That wasn't the only surprise. When authorities untangled the body from the
bananas, they found six kilograms of cocaine, officials said.

Why and how the man stowed away on a ship in Colombia is a mystery, as are
the drugs. South American cocaine is often hidden in ship cargo bound for
the United States, or sent with couriers. But a man smuggling himself and
drugs was a new twist for area law enforcement officials.

"I'm not aware this has happened before," said Rosemary Vicini, FBI special
agent in Baltimore. "We are still trying to determine why he arrived the way
he did."

How he died is another question. Pending results from an autopsy scheduled
today, authorities speculated he died of natural causes, though it's not
clear when.

The body was found at 7: 30 a.m., when employees at the J. C. Banana Co.
spotted a booted foot hanging out of a pallet of bananas in a truck. The
truck had brought the bananas from Philadelphia, where they arrived by ship
from Colombia and were unloaded by workers who apparently did not notice the
human cargo.

"You never see anything like that. We suspected that it was a stowaway, but
we didn't know he died," said Bill Class, who owns the 13-year-old company.

The man hid by surrounding himself on a pallet with boxes of bananas,
leaving crevices just big enough for his head and body, said Sgt. Morris
Carroll, Howard County police spokesman.

"He kind of dug himself into the boxes," Carroll said. "The only thing they
could have seen was a boot."

He had limited breathing space, relying on openings in the banana boxes,
police said. But he did not travel lightly: He was carrying 6 kilograms of
cocaine, said Howard County Executive James N. Robey, former police chief.
That would be worth up to $90,000 on the street, he said.

The man also carried water, shaving equipment, a flashlight and canned food,
Carroll said.

"The food had Spanish labels," he said.

Officials determined the load left Turbo, Colombia, five to seven days ago,
arriving in Philadelphia on Monday. There, the load was moved pallet by
pallet into a truck and shipped to Maryland, said Tim Holloran, assistant
special agent in charge at the U.S. Customs Office in Baltimore.

Holloran said "all indications are {the dead man} is from Colombia."

U.S. Customs, Drug Enforcement Agency, FBI and Howard County police
officials investigated the scene because it involved actions over
international and interstate borders. County police and FBI officials, who
are leading the investigation, sent the man's body to the state medical
examiner's office.

Officials are also investigating how the man got onto the ship, and are not
ruling out that someone helped him hide, police said.

Evidence at the scene suggests that the man might have died early in the
trip. Most of his food was unused, and officials found no bodily waste in
the truck, Carroll said.

FBI officials said the man was carrying identification, but they have not
released a name.

"We have a name. What we don't know is whether we have the right name," said
Vicini of the FBI.

The last time someone tried to stow away into the Baltimore area was in
1996, when six people in two ships tried to enter the port, Holloran said.

J. C. Banana officials -- who receive shipments from Philadelphia twice a
week -- said they don't think they can do anything to prevent this from
happening again because it is out of their hands. "The {Philadelphia crew}
loads the truck," Class said.

"We usually don't have people trying to sneak in here," said Holloran.

Sun staff writer Larry Carson contributed to this article.