It's stupid, foolish and exceedingly dangerous.

But the promise of a big payoff and a free trip in the sunshine is enough to convince many individuals to smuggle drugs into Bermuda -- even if they endanger their lives in doing so.

On Friday, two American women were sent to prison for seven years each after they admitted swallowing 80 pellets of cocaine valued at $115,000 and importing the drug into the Island.

In many ways they were lucky, says Collector of Customs Mr. Gerry Ardis. Those pellets of 75 per cent pure cocaine could have ruptured in their stomachs. Had that occurred they would have died.

"Swallowing and stuffing are two well recognised methods of smuggling drugs,'' he said. "We get Americans and some Bermudians using this method to smuggle drugs but the problem is that they are not as experienced at it as those persons from countries in South America and West Africa.

"Those persons are professionals who have an entire regimen.'' Mr. Ardis said there had been several persons caught who had either stuffed or swallowed heroin or cocaine in the last four years.

They have used condoms and the fingers of rubber gloves as containers before the drugs were ingested.

"Stuffers,'' meantime, are individuals who hide drugs in body orifices like the anus or the vagina.

In the last year, about seven people who used either method, have been caught.

"There are no clear trends,'' Mr. Ardis added. "Sometimes we catch several people close together. Other times we go for months without catching anyone.'' Typically, Mr. Ardis said drug dealers prey on people from societies' margins -- the unemployed, the poor, the indigent and the destitute -- because such persons have nothing to lose and will risk their own lives for a few thousand dollars and a free trip.

"But what they fail to realise, is that drug dealers are simply opportunists who couldn't care less about the `mule' (courier),'' he said. "Mules are totally expendable and the dealers actually prefer that they die if they are caught so that any ties to the drugs' source are extinguished.

"Dealers are motivated by greed and do not respect any person.'' Mr. Ardis said that Customs Officers and the Police Narcotics Squad work with other Government agencies and doctors at King Edward VII Memorial hospital in a coordinated manner to stem the tide of drug smuggling.

Currently, those agencies are examining legislation that would assist officers to make arrests.

However, the biggest plank in the battle is education.

"If Bermudians are even contemplating swallowing drugs they must understand that is very, very, stupid,'' Mr. Ardis warned.

"Can you imagine a pellet bursting and 75 per cent pure cocaine or 50 per cent pure heroin going directly into a person's bloodstream? If that happens you die. It's as simple as that.

"In some instances people who have had heroin spill inside them have been able to go to the hospital and get treatment, but if the drug is cocaine, there is no turning back.'' "It is a slow, painful and very horrific death.'' Mr. Gerry Ardis