Man faces charges in Chelsea after allegedly swallowing balloons or condoms containing heroin

By Sarah N. Mattero, Globe Correspondent

A Venezuelan man who had allegedly swallowed balloons or condoms filled with heroin ended up in the hospital — and in trouble with the law, Chelsea police said.

Police received a call from the Wyndham Boston Chelsea Hotel Sunday afternoon for a possible overdose in a room that was supposed to have been vacated that day, said Chelsea Police Captain Keith Houghton.

Luis Sanabria-Morales, 40, was transported to Whidden Hospital in Everett, where he remains hospitalized but under arrest. Doctors recovered some of the balloons or condoms from Sanabria-Morales’s body, but believe more may still be in his system, said the Suffolk district attorney’s office.

“Condoms are used as a holding device. He could have used a combination” of condoms and balloons, said Houghton, adding that both ways are commonly used to conceal drugs.

Houghton added that there was enough heroin for Sanabria-Morales to be charged with drug trafficking.