American bachata singer Jimmy Bauer (real name Jaime Vargas) has been detained at Santo Domingo Airport after becoming ill just before boarding a plane to the United States.

Authorities from the airport became suspicious when Bauer began to display "strange behaviour" and alerted the DNCD (Dominican Drug Agency). A spokesman for the DNCD said that an X-ray examination of the singer's abdomen showed dozens of similar pellets in his stomach.

Dominican authorities rushed Bauer to a nearby military hospital where 88 pellets weighing over a kilogram were extracted from his stomach. Authorities first belived Bauer was carrying cocaine but after examining the packets they found heroin.

Bauer is now under police guard at a military hospital in the Capital.