The African Sunshine - Nigerian gets ten years for 67 packages of cocaine in his belly

Nigerian gets ten years for 67 packages of cocaine in his belly
By: TAS
Publ. Date: January 16, 2010

A Nigerian man has been sent down for ten years for trying to smuggle 67 packages of cocaine into the UK.

Student Fidelis Ozouli, 30, was caught with £250,000 worth of cocaine in his stomach at Manchester Airport.

The drug, hidden inside scores of condoms, was said to be78 per cent pure and had a street value of £250,000. But he later claimed not know the packets contained drugs.

Customs officers at Manchester Airport became suspicious because the student looked unnaturally bloated.

When Ozouli was X-rayed, a quantity of cocaine equivalent to two bags of sugar was discovered in his stomach.

His claim left court officials baffled: “I didn't know they were drugs.”

He added: “I just did not know what they were. I thought I was swallowing something else to take into Britain as a favour for a pal.”

At Manchester Crown Court, Ozouli, a Nigerian but lives and studies in London, pleaded guilty to importing class ‘A’ drugs and was jailed for ten years - but continued to deny knowing what the haul was.

Judge Thomas Gilbart QC told him: “I do not accept your evidence and do not believe it is credible.

“The story is fantastical and I don't believe a word of it. This was a calculated decision on your part to solve your money worries.”

Ozouli, of Kennington, South London, was stopped by UK Border Agency officers on his arrival at Manchester from Switzerland.

He claimed he was on a business trip from Zurich on behalf of a pharmaceuticals company but inquiries revealed he had taken a lengthy and unusual route back to the UK from countries in Africa.

He was arrested and the case was passed to customs officers who interviewed him. Later he was taken to a nearby hospital where he was X-rayed to ensure all the packages had been recovered.