Heroin Body Packer’s Death in Greece

A 25-year–old black male was found dead alongside the railway lines close to Thessaloniki rail station. According to the police report the deceased had jumped off a moving train. Autopsy was performed eight hours after the incident. Fifty five (55) identical oval shaped “egg” packages were found in the large bowel and one of them was ruptured. The total weight of the powder was 800 g. Toxicological analysis was performed at the fine powder of the ruptured package, a selected sample of the other 54 packages and in postmortem blood sample of the deceased. Both samples of the powder were positive for heroin and the post-mortem blood sample was positive for morphine at a concentration of 1.45 μg/ml. This case is the first accidental death of a body packer in Greece and demonstrates that body packing is an existing problem in Greek borders.