By Nelson Manneh
Ousman Saidyba, the spokesperson for the Drug Law Enforcement Agency-The Gambia (DLEA-G), said a Nigerian national who was arrested at the Banjul International Airport with one hundred and thirty pellets of suspected cocaine, has been charged.
“The suspect has been charged for possession of prohibited drug and trafficking contrary to Section 43, subsection 4(b) of the Drug Control Act 2003,” Mr. Saidybah said.
According to the operatives of DLEAG stationed at Banjul International Airport,the Nigerian national attempted to smuggle one hundred and thirty pellets of suspected cocaine on Thursday,2May 2024, but was intercepted.
“Using behavioral indicator tactics, the operatives noticed that the suspect could be a mule carrying suspected prohibited drugs. He (the suspect) was subsequently invited for questioning where he confessed to swallowing pellets of cocaine in Guinea Bissau, before traveling by land straight to the Airport. He was thereafter placed on observation, and during the investigation process, the suspect defecated a cumulative total of one hundred and thirty pellets of suspected cocaine,” PRO Saidybah said.
He continued to say that the suspect was later identified as one Joseph Sunday Nwezeis, a 46-year-old Nigerian national residing in Spain, and said the suspect initially excreted thirty-five pellets, and sequentially excreted another thirty-five, then twenty-nine, seventeen, eight and finally six pellets respectively.
The incident, according to Saidybah, happened during a routine checking for Royal Air Moroc’s flight to Casablanca in Morocco.
In a similar but separate development, Saidyba said DLEAG’s Brusubi field office arrested two Sierra Leoneans and one Gambian national with two hundred and seventy-six pills of suspected ecstasy also known as ‘GAW’, and some quantities of suspected ‘kush’.
In the North Bank Region, Saidybah said DLEAG operatives alongside personnel of The Gambia Police Force (GPF), Gambia Immigration Department (GID) and the State Intelligence Agency, nabbed one 42-year-old Modou Camara with sixteen big bundles of suspected cannabis sativa in Daru Fodeba village on Saturday, 4 May 2024.
Equally, Saidyba said 18-year-old SaineyManneh of Tujereng was also taken into custody in Tanji with thirty-five wraps of suspected ‘Kush’, and said the incident happened on Friday 3rd May 2024.
Saidyba said the management of the Agency commends the Airport security command and by extension, all DLEAG operatives stationed across the country for their selfless service and relentless efforts in restraining drugs and related activities and said the Agency calls on the general public to join them in the crusade against drug abuse, illicit drug trafficking and related activities.
