Balloon swallower

A balloon swallower is an individual who crosses a border with the intent to smuggle drugs contained in his or her gastrointestinal tract.

In particular the term is used in American law enforcement for this regarding crossing the United States-Mexico border.

A balloon swallower typically fills tiny balloons with small quantities of a drug, usually heroin or cocaine, and then swallows these balloons. The swallower then attempts to cross into the United States from Mexico, excrete the balloons, and then sell the drugs for profit. It is far more common for the swallower to be making the trip for a drug lord or drug dealer. Swallowers are often impoverished and agree to transport the drugs in exchange for money and view it as a way into the United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt with this issue in United States v. Montoya De Hernandez. In Hernandez, a woman attempted to smuggle 88 balloons of cocaine in her gastrointestinal tract. She had been detained for over 16 hours by customs inspectors before she finally passed some of the balloons. She was being held because her abdomen was noticeably swollen (she claimed to be pregnant) and a search of her body had revealed she was wearing two pairs of elastic underpants and had lined her crotch area with paper towels. This is done because balloon swallowing makes bowel movements difficult to control.

Fiction

• The 2004 film Maria Full of Grace (advertised as "Based on 1,000 true stories") depicts the voyage of a young Colombian woman to New York as a balloon swallowing mule in great detail.
• In Bolletjes Blues, a 2006 Dutch musical film, a character is smuggling cocaine from Suriname to the Netherlands as a balloon swallower.