A
court has jailed a drug trafficker for nine years and fined him €10,000
for importing 360g of cocaine and other illicit substances, in a case
dating back 10 years.
Uchena Anya, 38, from Nigeria, was
found guilty of possession of the drug in circumstances denoting it
wasn’t for his personal use, conspiracy to traffic drugs and money
laundering by Magistrate Neville Camilleri.
The case revolves
around a controlled delivery carried out by the police on 27 November
2010. The consignment of drugs was halted after a Romanian man, Attila
Somlyai, was caught carrying 60 capsules containing around 600g of
cocaine in his stomach at the airport the day before.
Somlyai had
arrived in Malta from Dusseldorf and was arrested. He had cooperated
with the police and carried out the controlled delivery outside a Sliema
hotel.
Police investigations revealed that the drugs were meant
to be passed on to another Nigerian man, Stephen Ikechukwu, who was also
charged in separate proceedings. Anya was found to have also been
involved in the importation plan.
Somlyai had explained how he
had been travelling from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf and then caught a
flight to Malta, where he was supposed to go to the Roma hotel and meet a
Nigerian man. This plan was successful in October 2010, and the courier
had consigned 28 capsules in his first visit to Malta.
Somlyai's
second visit was unsuccessful, however, and he was intercepted by the
police. X-rays had revealed a large number of capsules in his stomach.
Anya was arrested after police spotted him acting suspiciously in court when Somlyai was arraigned together with Stephen Egbo.
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