Narco Nan? 65-yr-old #Nigerian woman nabbed with ingested #heroin haul at #Dar airport

Nigerian Olabisi Ibidum Cole at the Anti-Drugs Unit headquarters in Dar es Salaam yesterday. PHOTO | RAFAEL LUBAVA 

By Bernard James ,The Citizen Reporter

Posted  Friday, May 23  2014 at  00:00

In Summary

President Kikwete said he had been directing the relevant officials to improve security at all airports in the country, but to no avail.

A 65-year-old Nigerian woman has been arrested at Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) on suspicion of attempting to smuggle out a large quantity of heroin she had swallowed.

Police said yesterday that Olabisi Ibidum Cole had in her stomach 82 capsules of heroin with a street value if Sh50 million when she was arrested on Wednesday as she was about to fly out.

Cole was about to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight destined for Paris when she aroused the suspicion of security personnel, who immediately arrested her.

She passed 82 pellets of heroin while in custody.

Police yesterday took her to Temeke District Hospital after she complained of abdominal pain and high blood pressure.

Police sources said Cole flew into a panic after she was arrested and pleaded for mercy, saying she had come to Tanzania to eke out a living selling cosmetics.

Her passport showed that she first entered Tanzania on May 15. She recently visited the United States, United Kingdom, Gambia, Togo and Sierra Leone.

The head of the Anti-Drugs Unit, Mr Godfrey Nzowa, said yesterday that the elderly woman’s arrest should serve as a warning to drug traffickers that Tanzania was no longer a safe haven for them.

“They keep changing their tactics, but we are right at their heels. We know their tactics and movements more than ever before. The only option they have is to quit this business,” he said.

Mr Nzowa added that the unit had made significant gains in its war on drug trafficking, and attributed this to cooperation it was getting from the public.

“The world is now united against drugs. We are receiving crucial information about the movements of drug traffickers in and outside the country,” he said.

The Nigerian woman was arrested a few weeks after President Jakaya Kikwete gave airport authorities a tongue-lashing, saying he was not happy with the state of security at key airports in the country.