Man dies mid-flight after alleged 10g cocaine pellet bursts inside him

Presenting the most horrifying news I’ve heard all day: A man died on board an international flight after a pellet allegedly containing drugs burst inside of him.

John Kennedy dos Santos Gurjao of Brazil began suffering severely violent seizures during an Aer Lingus flight from Lisbon, Portugal, to Dublin, Ireland. Gurjao was ultimately restrained after reportedly biting a fellow passenger, witnesses told The Guardian. The flight made an emergency landing in Cork, where the man was pronounced dead.

A postmortem has since confirmed that Gurjao had ingested 80 pellets containing approximately 0.8kg of a substance believed to be cocaine, The Irish Times reports. One of those pellets is confirmed to have burst. If the alleged cocaine was equally divided between all 80 pellets, then that would mean that about 10g of coke would have entered Gurjao’s system at once. Coke is usually sold by the gram, so that is a lot of coke!!!!

The Times reports that a 44-year-old female passenger believed to be traveling with Gurjao was arrested on drugs-trafficking charges when the plane touched down in Cork. Garda Síochána (aka Ireland’s police force) found 1.8kg of baking soda in her luggage. Cocaine is often cut with baking soda so that dealers can package and sell more of their product. Baking soda is also sometimes used in the production of crack cocaine.