34-year-old Surinamese gets 13 years jail term for concealing 9.9kg cocaine in condoms

• NDLEA secures conviction of 1,445 drug traffickers in six months

Justice E.A. Obile, of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, has sentenced a 34-year-old South American man from Suriname, Dadda Lorenzo Harvy Albert, to 13 years imprisonment for concealing 9.9kg of cocaine in condoms.

Albert was arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for bringing into Nigeria 117 parcels of cocaine concealed in extra-large latex condoms, factory packed, inside bottles of 100ml body spray.

The suspect, who claimed he departed his country, Suriname, located in the North Eastern coast of South America on April 2, for São Paulo, Brazil and from Sao Paulo to Nigeria on Friday, April 7, on board Qatar Airways flight in search of his long-lost Nigerian father, whom he called “Omini”, was arraigned before the court on June 1 on two-count of importation and unlawful possession of 9.9kgs cocaine in charge number FHC/PH/181C/23.

The Surinamese, however, pleaded guilty to the two-count charge and after the review of the facts of the case on Thursday, 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 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 trial judge 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 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.

Speaking on the conviction, NDLEA’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, in a statement, yesterday, said the successful prosecution and conviction of Lorenzo was 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 Agency with the trial of a total of 11,166 other drug suspects ongoing in court.

He said out of the 1,445 convicts, 221 of them are female, while the balance of 1,224 are male.

According to him, of the 11,166 pending cases, 10,626 of them are men while the rest, 540 are women.

He said: “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 kilogrammes of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis, tramadol and others linked to them between January and June 2023.”

Meanwhile, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (Retd), has 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.