Nigerian, who swallowed 67 wraps of cocaine, jailed in UK

The Isleworth Crown court in the United Kingdom on Friday sentenced Samuel Nwankwo, a 27-year-old Nigerian man, to four years in prison over drug trafficking.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales, Nwankwo, who is a resident of Eastfield in Peterborough, ingested 67 wraps of cocaine worth £82,210 in Brazil before boarding a flight to London on February 11.

He also alleged that he had been visiting his wife and was short on annual leave.

Nwankwo is said to have boarded Latam Airlines flight from Sao Paulo to Heathrow airport where he was nabbed by security operatives at the terminal 3.

The convict, who had been in the South American country for five days, had no checked baggage but a body scan showed suspicious images in his stomach.

“A body scan at the airport revealed suspicious shapes inside Nwankwo. He was then taken to a hospital for a CT scan where dozens of concealed packages were identified inside him,” the CPC reported.

“He had previously pleaded guilty to one count of fraudulent evasion on the importation of a prohibited Class A drug.”

The drug found in Nwankwo was said to have an average purity of 77.1 per cent.

The judge, however, sentenced him to four years in prison and also ordered that the cocaine be destroyed.

“Importing drugs by ingestion is illegal and could lead to lethal consequences. Nwankwo was lucky to be alive after taking such a high quantity of cocaine,” Cindy Fayefunmi, a crown prosecution service official, said.