A 34-year-old South American man from Suriname, Dadda Lorenzo Harvy Albert, who was arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt, Rivers state has been convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
The NDLEA operatives had arrested Albert for bringing 117 parcels of cocaine concealed in extra-large latex condoms factory packed inside bottles of 100ml body spray into Nigeria.
NDLEA’s Spokesman, Femi Babafemi disclosed this in a statement he signed and made available to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said the suspect who claimed to have departed his country, Suriname, located in the North Eastern coast of South America on 2nd April for Sao Paulo, Brazil and from Sao Paulo to Nigeria on Friday 7th April, 2023 on board Qatar Airways flight in search of his long-lost Nigerian father whom he called “Omini”, was arraigned before Justice E.A. Obile of the Federal High Court 2, Port Harcourt on 1st June on two counts of importation and unlawful possession of 9.9kgs cocaine in charge number FHC/PH/181C/23.
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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 Thursday 20th July, he was convicted and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment on both counts without an option of fine.
“In his ruling, Justice Obile declared that “You Dadda Lorenzo Harvy 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 statement said.
The trial judge also ordered the forfeiture of the sum of USD90 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 Lorenzo’s Counsel for him to be deported back to his country.
As a result, the convict is now serving his term of imprisonment at the Correctional Centre, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Babafemi said 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.
“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,” Babafemi revealed.
Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba 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.
