Drug mule swallows more than 600 grams of cocaine for flight to Australia

Adrien Lionel van Langenhove tried to smuggle 637 grams of Cocaine into Brisbane. Photo / 7News

A French citizen has been sentenced to seven years in prison on Monday after an attempt to smuggle 637 grams of cocaine into Australia.

Adrien Lionel van Langenhove swallowed the cocaine in little pellets before his flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane in an attempt to weasel his way out of a business debt. He had hoped that the pellets would eventually pass through his body and then collect them in the toilet.

One of the pellets burst in his digestive system while he was on the plane, although it is unclear how much of the drug ended up being absorbed into his body, revealed 7News.

When the Frenchmen arrive at Brisbane International Airport on the 3rd of December 2017, a drug dog detected traces of cocaine in his luggage but was eventually waived through when custom officers failed to locate any more of the white powder.

The next day, the 39-year-old suffered severe stomach pains. He went to a chemist to buy laxatives in hope it would move the drugs through his system.

When the pain didn't pass, he returned to the pharmacy and complained about his discomfort to a pharmacist who shortly called an ambulance for van Langenhove. When the ambulance arrived he admitted to hospital staff that he had recently ingested a large number of drugs.

Van Langenhove spent the next several days in hospital having the 86 little bags of cocaine removed from his body through both surgery and natural expulsion.

After being discharged from hospital he was shortly arrested and charged with importing a marketable quantity of border-controlled drugs. Photo / Australian Border Force

The Frenchman was arrested by police shortly after being discharged from the hospital.

On Monday, he pleaded guilty in the Queensland Supreme Court to importing a marketable quantity of border-controlled drugs.

He was sentenced to seven years in jail with a non-parole period of four years. Van Langenhove had already spent 619 days in pre-sentence custody.

In court, it was explained that the Frenchman had agreed to smuggle the cocaine into Australia in order to clear an AU$5600 business debt he had obtained while living in Costa Rica and Guatemala.

He swallowed 86 pellets of cocaine on a flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane. Photo / Australian Border Force