Body of evidence: U.S. Customs finds 180 heroin pellets in woman

Reporting from Washington —  Gulp!

A bellyful of an alleged drug-smuggling attempt was recently thwarted at Dulles International Airport with the arrest of a woman on suspicion of ingesting 180 pellets – or nearly five pounds – of heroin.

Bola Adebisi, 52, was arrested Saturday after arriving March 14 on a flight from her native Nigeria in what U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials called the largest heroin internal seizure at the northern Virginia airport.

Adebisi caught the attention of a female customs agent, who, while conducting a routine pat-down, discovered that Adebisi’s stomach was abnormally rigid, officials said.

An X-ray at a hospital detected foreign bodies in her abdomen.

During her stay in the hospital, she expelled 180 thumb-sized pellets of heroin, with an approximate street value of about $150,000.

“We were kind of shocked and surprised at the sheer number of pellets she ingested,” Steve Sapp of Customs and Border Protection told The Times. “We usually see men twice her size ingest about half of what she did.”

“The amount of pellets and heroin this woman ingested is incredible, a serious health risk, and very troubling if these numbers become the new normal,” Christopher Hess, director of Customs and Border Protection’s Port of Washington, D.C., added in a statement.

Adebisi, who is in custody, is charged with the importation and attempt to import 100 grams or more of heroin, according to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office. If she is convicted, once she serves her sentence, she will be deported, officials said.

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richard.simon@latimes.com