Italy arrests Nigerian with heroin stash in stomach

Italian police said Thursday they had detected 1.7 kilos (3.8 pounds) of heroin a Nigerian man had stashed in 94 plastic capsules inside his stomach as he tried to exit Rome’s Fiumicino airport.

The 39-year-old had disembarked a flight from the Ethiopian capital Addis Abeba but officers picked up on his nervousness as he went through passport control and detained him.

They took him for a hospital scan which showed up the drugs.

The man was placed under close surveillance for three days while the capsules passed through his system and he was then hauled off to jail.

Airport officials told AFP dozens of drug “mules” — most carrying cocaine or heroin — are stopped annually at Fiumicino. The majority fly in from Africa, typically stopping over there after a flight from Latin America.