Court sentences India-bound drug baron to 25 years imprisonment

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said on Tuesday that a Federal High Court in Lagos had sentenced drug trafficker Freeman Ogbonna, who was detained and charged by the agency, to 25 years in prison. 

This was revealed in a statement released on Tuesday by Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA's Director of Media and Advocacy. 

Three months after Ogbonna was arrested at the screening area of Terminal II of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, he vomited and expelled 80 wraps of cocaine. This was when he was sentenced.

On Sunday, March 31, 2024, Ogbonna was detained while trying to use a Liberian passport using the name Carr Bismark to board a Qatar Airways aircraft via Doha to Delhi, India. 

According to the statement, a body scan later revealed that he had taken illegal narcotics.

The statement said, “Preliminary checks revealed his real identity as Freeman Charles Ogbonna, and he was subsequently placed under observation in the NDLEA custody, where he started to manifest signs of discomfort.

“Obviously choked by the volume of illicit drugs in his stomach and another substance taken to hold back excretion, the suspect soon began to retch before starting to vomit and excrete wraps of cocaine he ingested almost simultaneously.

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