ABSTRACT
Early in the 1970s, a new breed of smuggler began to be recognized and apprehended by the radiological method. 1 This was the body packer or mule, who smuggles contraband drugs across borders in specially constructed packages to be carried hidden inside the body in the rectum, vagina, or alimentary canal. The rectum and vagina are too easily accessible for search and discovery by manual means, so the alimentary canal has become the favored internal receptacle. The early drug packages were fairly primitive, using one or more layers of latex in the form of condoms, the fingers of surgical gloves, or even toy balloons. Almost inevitably air was trapped between the layers of the latex, and these telltale crescentic shadows were easily detected by routine radiography or fluoroscopy. Those early packages were also susceptible to rupture or leakage with sometimes fatal results (Figure 4.8).
