Nigerian woman jailed in UK for cocaine smuggling

12.02.2008

A Nigerian citizen and a mother of five has been jailed for eight and a half years in the United Kingdom after she was caught smuggling £500,000 of cocaine through Stansted Airport.

Abosede Fehintola, 57, was stopped by Customs officials on October 26, 2007 after she flew into the Essex Airport from Istanbul, Turkey. Fehintola told the officials that she was in the UK to visit her pregnant daughter.

When her suitcase had been emptied, it still felt heavy and scans revealed a package concealed within the lining. A hole was made with a spike and a more than five kilogrammess of cocaine were discovered.

Delivering the judgment at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday, the judge, Charles Gratwicke, said “the importation of Class A drugs into this country is regarded as extremely serious.

“Cocaine in all its various forms brings nothing but misery, ill health and degradation to those who become addicted to it and stress and sorrow to those who are related to those addicted.

“Courts in this country have said that those who travel from abroad and decide to break laws to bring Class A into the UK must expect substantial prison sentences.”

Fehintola, a trader in children’s clothes and shoes, was also carrying £1,000 and a quantity of Nigerian currency which was seized under the proceeds of crime act.