STANSTED AIRPORT: Woman jailed for smuggling cocaine through airport

4:26pm Monday 11th February 2008

A 57-YEAR-OLD Nigerian woman has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years by Chelmsford Crown Court after trying to smuggle cocaine with a street value of over £513,000 into the UK.

HM Revenue & Customs officers stopped Abosede Fehintola on October 26 last year after she had arrived at Stansted on an evening flight from Istanbul.

She told officers she was in the UK to visit her pregnant daughter.

Fehintola, a married woman with five children who lived in Lagos, was carrying a black suitcase which she said she had packed herself. When one of the officers lifted the emptied bag it still felt heavy. Officers scanned the case and the X-rays showed a package or packages concealed within the lining.

A hole was made with a spike and a white powder was found which tested positive to cocaine.

In total officers recovered an estimated 5 kilos of Class A drugs.

In sentencing Fehintola on Friday, Judge 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 Naira which was seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Dave Gostelow from HM Revenue and Customs said: "HMRC is at the forefront of the fight to stop drugs entering the UK and to reduce the associated harm to our communities. The sentence handed down today should act as a deterrent to those involved in drug trafficking and clearly shows that crime doesn't pay.

If you know of any suspicious activities which may be linked to drug smuggling, call our 24-hour hotline on 0800 59 5000."