A man died from a cocaine overdose after he panicked and swallowed a bag of cocaine in an effort to conceal the drug when the car in which he was travelling was stopped by gardaí, an inquest heard yesterday.
Edwin Onyango (27), St John's Court, Kilmore, Artane, Dublin, died at Beaumont Hospital June 25th, 2006, just over 20 hours after swallowing an "eight bag" of cocaine on his way to a party.
Mr Onyango, a father of two, was admitted to the Beaumont A&E department at 1pm on June 24, but despite all efforts to assist him, he died from hypoxic brain damage caused by cocaine toxicity just 12 hours later.
The court heard that during a post-mortem, State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy recovered a small plastic package from Mr Onyango's bowel, which was filled with "blood-tinged fluid".
A toxicology screening revealed that Mr Onyango had a very high level of cocaine in his blood - 0.65 ml per cent of pure cocaine and 9.5 ml per cent of a breakdown product of cocaine.
The amount of cocaine he swallowed was estimated to be worth between €600 and €700.
The court heard that Mr Onyango was on his way to a party in Cabra with a group including Shaheem McQuillan when the car in which he was a passenger was pulled over by gardaí as part of a routine search.
Mr McQuillan told the court that when they drove off, Mr Onyango told them he had swallowed "an eight bag of cocaine".
"He was very upset. He got out of the car on two occasions and tried to make himself sick and then left," said Mr McQuillan.
Mr Onyango's wife, Anne, told the court that she was at home on the night of June 23rd when Eric Ojiambo, with whom her husband had gone out for the night, returned in the early hours of June 24th and told her that Mr Onyango had gone to a party.
Ms Onyango had been babysitting Mr Ojiambo's son.
She later spoke to her husband on the phone and he told her he had been forced to swallow cocaine.
He returned home at about 4am and the following morning he complained of stomach pains, but Ms Onyango told the court she did not believe him.
Mr Ojiambo told the court that Mr Onyango came into the living room at 10am and told him he had been forced to swallow drugs and asked him to ring Anne to buy laxatives.
He refused Mr Ojiambo's offer to call an ambulance.
When his wife returned home at about lunchtime, Mr Onyango was having fits, foaming at the mouth and shaking so she contacted the emergency services.
Sgt Michael Higgins told the court that he was confident there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding Mr Onyango's death.
He said it was common practice for people to try and conceal the drugs in one way or another when stopped by gardaí, including swallowing them or holding them in one's mouth.
He said it was an extremely dangerous practice, especially when the drugs were ready for the street and the plastic dissolved very easily.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell recorded a verdict of death by misadventure and said Mr Onyango's death highlighted the dangers of such concealment.