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Venezuelan jailed for 22 years for drug trafficking
Rodrigues Fagundez being led from a police car to the Entebbe Airport police cells after she was arrested with narcotic drugs at the airport in June 2018. Photo by Paul Adude
What you need to know:
- Statistics from Interpol show that drugs worth Shs5b were intercepted at Entebbe airport last year.
- Rodrigues Fagundez was arrested in June 2018.
Entebbe. Entebbe Magistrate’s Court has sentenced a 24-year-old Venezuelan national to 22 years in prison for drug trafficking.
Entebbe Grade One Magistrate Susan Okeny yesterday sentenced Rodriguez Fagundez Albelys Doralys to Kigo prison on two counts of unlawful possession of narcotic drugs for 11 years and trafficking them for another 11 years, and a fine of Shs10m to be served concurrently.
Court also issued an immediate deportation order to Doralys after serving her sentence.
Doralys was arrested on June 18, 2018, at Entebbe International Airport for possessing a total of 1,660gms of cocaine which she had swallowed.
Police tipped off
Entebbe Aviation police commandant Jasper Oloka said Interpol had been tipped off by the Aviation police that Doralys had initially booked to travel from Sao Paulo in Brazil to Addis Ababa through Nairobi on June 17.
However, she changed her routing and arrived at Entebbe airport the following day.
READ:
Venezuelan arrested at Entebbe Airport, excretes 114 pellets of narcotic drugs
Police say the 24 year old suspected drug trafficker was induced with cooking oil to excrete the drugs
In a related development, the magistrate’s court has fined Mr Adson Ampaire, an employee of Entebbe ground handling firm NAS, for conspiracy to airlift 8kgs of heroine at Entebbe airport.
Mr Ampaire had hidden the cocaine in a staff van which was intercepted by the Civil Aviation Authority security.
Mr Oloka said Mr Ampaire’s co-accused, Mr Ngelo Aggrey, is on the run. The duo had been arrested on August 30.
Mr Oloka said the drug traffickers operate in cells (network) which makes it hard to break through and discover the ring leaders.
Statistics from Interpol show that drugs worth Shs5b were intercepted at Entebbe airport last year.
The report also says at least eight Ugandans were arrested while smuggling out part of the intercepted drugs worth Shs4b.
