SMUGGLERS FORCING RCMP INTO 'BEDPAN VIGIL'

Ingested Cocaine; In One Case 89 'Pellets' Passed Over Nine Days, Police Say

Border guards at Toronto's Pearson international airport faced a
sudden flush of travellers trying to conceal cocaine by swallowing
balls of the powerful drug wrapped in plastic, forcing investigators
to sift through messy evidence.

Four Canadians in their 20s, two from Quebec and two from Calgary,
were arrested this month after arriving from South America with
unusual internal loads, police said.

On May 13, two Quebec men arrived in Toronto on a flight from Bogota,
Colombia, on their way to Montreal.

During a customs examination they admitted to swallowing and anally
inserting cocaine pellets, according to the RCMP.

Before police officers arrived, however, one of the men became ill
and Canada Border Services Agency officials feared the wrapping on
the pellets was unravelling and that potent cocaine was leaking into his body.

He was taken to Etobicoke General Hospital, where he underwent
emergency surgery to remove some of the cocaine pellets.

The remaining pellets were left to pass naturally and were collected
over nine days, according to the RCMP. A total of 89 cocaine pellets
were seized.

It could have been dangerous for the suspect, police said.

"The influx of so much cocaine [into the body] would be considered an
overdose compared to what any ordinary user would ingest at one time.
That amount of cocaine could cause severe physical trauma or death,"
said RCMP Staff Sergeant Freeman Sweazey.

"When we have a drug swallower in custody we monitor them for signs
of impairment from the particular drug so we can initiate medical
protocols if required."

Just as the pair were dropping their evidence off, two more
passengers were detained.

On May 21, a 25-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman, both of
Calgary, arrived on a flight from Georgetown, Guyana.

Both were examined by CBSA and found to have also swallowed numerous
cocaine pellets. After three days of a "bedpan vigil," they had
expelled 184 pellets, according to police. All four were medically
cleared and charged with importing cocaine.

The discoveries come after last month's marathon monitoring of a
Scarborough man accused of swallowing 76 pellets of cocaine. For
three weeks officers waited for him to pass the evidence while
worrying that a rupture would kill him.

The suspect required six trips to the hospital, numerous X-rays and
CT scans while refusing to allow doctors to surgically intervene,
even after three pellets -- each the size of a tampon -- became
dangerously lodged in his bowel, according to the RCMP.

In that case, the man arrived at the airport after an 11-hour flight
from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The RCMP said the health-care costs were several thousand dollars in
that one case.