A 34-year-old South American man from Suriname, Dadda Albert, who was arrested for bringing into Nigeria 117 parcels of cocaine concealed in extra-large latex condoms factory packed inside bottles of 100ml body spray, has been convicted.
He was arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
According to NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the convict was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
The suspect, claimed he departed his country, Suriname, located in the North Eastern coast of South America on April 2, for Sao Paulo, Brazil and from Sao Paulo to Nigeria on April 7, 2023, on board Qatar Airways flight in search of his long-lost Nigerian father whom he called “Omini.”
The statement added that he was arraigned before Justice E. Obile of a Federal High Court sitting Port Harcourt on June 1, on two counts of importation and unlawful possession of 9.9kgs cocaine.
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The Surinamese, however, pleaded guilty to the two-count charge and after the review of the facts of the case on July 20, he was convicted and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment on both counts without an option of fine.
In his ruling, Justice Obile said: “You Dadda Albert is hereby sentenced to 13 years imprisonment without option of fine on count 1 and count 2 also. And both shall run concurrently.”
The court also ordered the forfeiture of the sum of $90 and R$10 Brazilian Real recovered from the convict at the time of his arrest to the Federal Government.
The court equally refused the application by Lorenzos counsel for him to be deported back to his country.
Babafemi added that as a result, the convict was now serving his term of imprisonment at the Correctional Centre, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The successful prosecution and conviction of Lorenzo 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 NDLEA with the trial of a total of 11,166 other drug suspects ongoing in court.
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Out of the 1,445 convicts, 221 of them are female while the balance of 1,541 are male.
Of the 11,166 pending cases, 10,626 of them are men while the rest, 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 kilograms of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis, tramadol and others linked to them between January and June 2023.
He added that Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (retd) commended officers and men of the prosecution department for a job well done.
He charged them to remain committed to diligent prosecution of all pending cases in court, adding that conviction and sentencing without the option of fine is a strong deterrence to offenders and anyone contemplating going into any crime.
