Singing Edinburgh Airport drug smuggler jailed
26.01.08
A smuggler who had attempted to bring cocaine with a street price of half a million pounds into Scotland via Edinburgh Airport has been jailed – thanks to an African languages expert and an x-ray machine.
As previously reported, Edinburgh High Court heard how a 6 kg consignment of the drug was hidden in the wooden slats of packing cases flown into the airport from Peru. The court heard that police and customs officers searched the six crates – but only discovered the cocaine in the hollowed-out planks after an x-ray.
Nigerian-born Edmond Okoli, 43, turned up to collect the crates of cheap crockery using a fake driving licence as ID. But before the boxes were released, the cocaine had been seized and one of the crates had been bugged with an eavesdropping device. As the consignment was driven away in a white Toyota van the bug picked up the sound of someone singing about drugs in a foreign language.
Language expert Godson Echebima was brought in to listen to the smugglers, and said he heard 'joyful singing' in a language he identified as Igbo, spoken in eastern Nigeria. He made out the words 'He who has the drugs.....' The van was stopped as it headed south on the M74 and Okoli was arrested.
Security guard Okoli, of London, denied smuggling cocaine into Scotland in November 2005 – along with others. He said he had been offered £500 to pick up the Peruvian artifacts and knew nothing about drugs. He named those he claimed were really to blame. But a jury rejected his story and found him guilty, by majority.
Last year, Okoli stood trial on the same charges with the two men he claimed were really responsible. Richard Taylor, 45, of Edinburgh, and Chibuike Chukwu, 28, of London, were cleared by a jury then. The proceedings against Okoli were temporarily abandoned because his lawyer was taken ill. He will be sentenced next month and judge Roger Craik QC remanded him in custody until then.
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