Nigerian Woman Arrested At Seychelles Airport For Cocaine Trafficking

A Nigerian woman has been remanded by the Seychelles Supreme Court on conspiracy to import and traffic a controlled drug, the police confirmed in a press release on Monday, March 27, 2023.

The police said the 52-year-old woman is being detained after she was arrested at the Seychelles International Airport on Thursday after her arrival on an Ethiopian Airline flight, Seychelles NewsAgency reported.

The arrest of the Nigerian followed a search, discovery, and seizure of 250 grammes of what is suspected to be cocaine.

The arrest comes a little less than a year after another foreign female national, Elsie Esther Vambe, 45, was sentenced to five years in prison for the importation of a controlled drug and another five years for trafficking a controlled drug.

The Zimbabwean female national was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2022 for the importation and trafficking of a controlled drug after she pleaded guilty to both offences. The sentences will run concurrently, which means Vambe will be imprisoned for five years.

Last Friday, the police said a 58-year-old businessman from Nigeria, Patrick Ikechukwu Uwaoma, was sentenced to 30 years after he was found guilty of the importation of cocaine.

Uwaoma, who was residing in the United States, was intercepted by the police and customs officers at the airport on November 20 last year. He arrived in Seychelles on an Ethiopian Airlines flight. During a search of his luggage, the officers found a little more than 4.5 kg of cocaine.

The Seychelles' archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, has a zero-tolerance policy towards the trafficking and importation of illegal drugs. There is a maximum sentence of life in prison if found guilty.