By Abiodun Sanusi
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has secured the conviction of a 13 years jail term for a 34-year-old South American man from Suriname, Dadda Albert.
The anti-narcotics agency also secured the conviction of 1,445 drug traffickers within six months.
The development was revealed in a statement issued by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi on Wednesday.
Albert was arrested by the NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State, with 117 parcels of cocaine concealed in an extra-large latex condoms factory, packed inside bottles of 100ml body spray.
Following his arrest, he was arraigned before Justice E.A. Obile of the Federal High Court 2, Port Harcourt, on June 1, 2023.
He was arraigned on two counts of importation and unlawful possession of 9.9kgs cocaine in charge number FHC/PH/181C/23.
The Surinamese pleaded guilty to the charge and after reviewing the facts of the case on Thursday, July 20, he was convicted and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment on both counts without an option of fine.
Justice Obile also ordered the forfeiture of $90 and R$10 recovered from the convict at the time of his arrest to the Federal Government.
The court equally refused the application by Albert’s Counsel for him to be deported to his country.
Babafemi noted that the successful prosecution and conviction of Albert is one of the 1,445 drug cases concluded at the Federal High Court across the country between January and June 2023 by the Directorate of Prosecution and Legal Services of the NDLEA.
He added that the trial of 11,166 other drug suspects is ongoing in court.
He said, ”Out of the 1,445 convicts, 221 of them are females while 1,541 are males. Of the 11,166 pending cases, 10,626 are men, while the remaining 540 are women.
”The 1,445 convicts and 11,166 suspects who are still facing trial were arrested and charged to court over the seizure of 555,953.70 kilogrammes of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis, tramadol, and others linked to them between January and June 2023,” Babafemi said.
Source: The Punch
