A Japanese man with 246 packets of cocaine in his stomach and intestines died mid-flight on his way from Bogota to Tokyo, authorities have said in northern Mexico where the plane made an emergency landing.

The 42-year-old man, identified only as Udo N, began having a seizure after the commercial flight from the Colombian capital made a stopover in Mexico City, the prosecutor’s office for the state of Sonora said. “Flight attendants noticed a person suffering convulsions and requested permission to make an emergency landing in Hermosillo, Sonora,” it said.

“When the plane landed at 2:25am on Friday, paramedics boarded it and declared Udo N deceased.”

⭕️ Autopsia revela que fueron 246 envoltorios de narcóticos en el cuerpo del pasajero de origen japonés, lo que le ocasionó la muere en el aeropuerto de #Hermosillo.



🔗 Detalles 👉 https://t.co/xlO4FzOKo0 pic.twitter.com/aM59e1gqg4 — FGJE SONORA (@fgjesonora) May 26, 2019

An autopsy found the man had swallowed 246 packets of cocaine, each measuring 1cm by 2.5cm. The cause of death was swelling of the brain caused by a drug overdose, prosecutors said.

The Aeromexico plane carrying 198 other passengers resumed its flight to Japan after the body was removed and international protocols were carried out, said the statement.

Transporting narcotics inside human “mules” is a widely used smuggling tactic with drug cartels.