Following his arrest, he underwent a computed tomography (CT) scan, which discovered the presence of “multiple images compatible with drug pellets” in his stomach. Due to the consistent denial of alleged drug packing, the suspect underwent clinical surveillance.
Surprisingly, it was found that the substances detected by the scan were fufu that he had eaten before his arrest, not drugs as initially suspected.
This interesting development was disclosed in a journal published in the US-owned National Library of Medicine.
“This article reports the case of a young man who was taken by law enforcement authorities to our Emergency Department for an investigation of suspected body stuffing.
“Although the patient denied the facts, the initial reading of the computed tomography (CT) scan confirmed the presence of multiple images compatible with drug pellets, mostly in the stomach. The pellet findings were more consistent with body packing than body stuffing, as initially suspected by the police.
“However, upon admission to our secured inpatient ward for clinical surveillance of pellet evacuation, the patient denied again having ingested such pellets and declared that he only ate ‘fufu,’” the article read in part.
Body stuffing is a drug trafficking technique in which several narcotic pellets are purposefully consumed. The insertion of pellets intrarectally or intravaginally is referred to as "body pushing." Most of the time, these are made mechanically and wrapped in several layers to prevent breaking on long-distance drug smuggling routes.