A NIGERIAN resident of South Africa yesterday became the latest person to be sent to prison in Namibia for having smuggled cocaine into the country inside his intestines.
Nigerian citizen Kingsley Nwosu (34) was sentenced by Magistrate Cosmos Endjala in the Windhoek Regional Court a year and two months after his arrest at Hosea Kutako International Airport outside Windhoek.
Nwosu was arrested on May 22 last year.
On Thursday last week, he pleaded guilty before Magistrate Endjala to a charge of dealing in dangerous dependence-producing drugs.
Nwosu admitted that he had dealt in about 782,4 grams of cocaine, valued at about N$391 196, on the day of his arrest.
In a brief written plea explanation he stated that he had swallowed the cocaine before entering Namibia.
With the sentencing yesterday the magistrate noted that the court had been told that Nwosu had brought the cocaine from Brazil, via Angola. He claimed he was on his way to South Africa, which was to be the destination for the drugs as well, when he was arrested.
Nwosu is married and is the father of two children, aged six and one and a half years. He was making a living as a businessman selling clothing in South Africa, the court was also told.
Magistrate Endjala told Nwosu that he regarded it as aggravating that Nwosu had tried to use Namibia as a transit country to smuggle the cocaine to another country. He said he agreed with the opinion that all of the countries of the region should jointly make efforts to prevent drug trafficking.
The magistrate sentenced Nwosu to ten years’ imprisonment, of which two years were suspended for a period of five years on condition that Nwosu is not again convicted of drug-dealing during the period of suspension.