UK jails Nigerian Nwankwo for 67 wraps of cocaine in stomach

File: Nwankwo ingested 67 cocaine wraps before leaving Brazil to London in February.

Samuel Nwankwo, a Nigerian resident in Eastfield in Peterborough, UK, who swallowed 67 wraps of cocaine before taking a flight from Brazil to London has been jailed for four years.

He was jailed on Friday for four years at Isleworth Crown Court and the drugs were also ordered to be destroyed. He had previously pleaded guilty to one count of fraudulent evasion on the importation of a prohibited Class A drug.

Nwankwo, born 25 November 1991, was stopped by Border Police at Terminal 3 London Heathrow as he alighted from a Latam Airlines flight from Sau Paulo on 11 February this year.

He had been to the South American country for five days and had no checked baggage with him.

He claimed he went to visit his wife and was short on annual leave.

A body scan at the airport revealed suspicious shapes inside Nwankwo. He was then taken to a hospital for a CT scan where dozens of concealed packages were identified inside him.

Cindy Fayefunmi, from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Importing drugs by ingestion is illegal and could lead to lethal consequences. Nwankwo was lucky to be alive after swallowing such a large quantity of cocaine.

“The CPS takes the trafficking of illegal drugs extremely seriously and will prosecute those who flout drug rules.”

The cocaine found in Nwankwo equated to 67 ‘swallower’ wraps with the average purity of 77.1 per cent. The estimated value of the amount he had was £82,210.