The 42-year-old man, identified only as Udo N., began having a seizure midway through a Friday flight from Mexico City, Mexico, to Tokyo, Japan, the prosecutor's office for the Mexican state of Sonora said Monday in a statement.
"Crew noticed a person suffering convulsions and requested to make an emergency landing in Hermosillo, Sonora," the statement said.
The plane landed at 2:25 a.m. in Hermosillo, where paramedics declared the man dead.
During an autopsy, investigators found 246 bags of cocaine that were 2.5 cm long and 1 cm wide in the man's stomach and intestines, the statement said. The cause of death was ruled to be swelling of the brain caused by drug overdose.
The man had come from Bogota, Colombia, before boarding his connecting flight in Mexico City, authorities said.
After the man’s body was removed, the flight continued to Tokyo.
Swallowing packets of drugs is a common method used by smugglers to move drugs from country to country, CNN reported.
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