A Massachusetts man is facing drug trafficking charges after surgeons at a local hospital surgically removed 27 bags of heroin from his stomach and intestines on Tuesday, officials report.
The man, 51-year-old Miguel Rodriguez, went to North Shore Medical Center Salem Hospital to report about feeling sick from a bad lobster that he had eaten. However, his story was cast into doubt when medical staff noticed that his symptoms match that of opioid intoxication rather than food poisoning and his body responded favorably to Narcan.
Upon recovering, Rodriguez, left with little choice, came clean and revealed to the staff that he just returned from the Dominican Republic, where he had ingested several bags of heroin - with the assumed intent to smuggle them into the U.S.
A nurse then contacted local police, who sent two detectives to the scene to investigate. The authorities wore "sanitation suits" as they watched a surgeon surgically remove bags of heroine and cocaine from Rodriguez's body. The operation lasted a little less than 40 minutes - from 6:12 to 6:50 p.m. - during which 27 bags, amounting to 163.4 grams of heroin with a street value of $16,000, were recovered from Rodriguez's stomach, colon and rectum.
The officers, who watched and counted the bags, obtained a search warrant and took the drugs from the hospital's pathology department and later slapped Rodriguez with drug trafficking charges.
Rodriguez was held on $500,000 bail while still on the hospital bed and plead innocent to the charges, but police see it differently.
"The bottom line is that this is a person who is bringing the drug into the country and this is the drug that is killing our people," Salem police Capt. Conrad Prosniewski said. "The quantity that he had inside of him came to the weight level that exceeded the trafficking qualifications."
The entire cause of the incident is believed to have been one of the drug bags that burst open during his return from his trip.
Rodriguez's case is only a small part of a larger drug problem that Salem and other North Shore locations find themselves in the midst of. So far in 2016, a total of 29 cases have been reported in the city, 15 of which occurred in March alone.
The Obama administration has recognized heroin and other opioid drug addiction as one that doesn't just effect Salem, but the country as whole, asking for $1.1 billion in funding to deal with the matter before it gets worse.
