Nigerian Mule Sniffed Out By a Dog

Crossing the Boarders with Drug Pellets

There are many ways to transport items on an airplane. Most people use checked luggage or carry on bags. Barrat Eni decided to carry his packages in his digestive system. This might not have been that bad, except that his package was over 800 grams of cocaine.

Eni was attempting to board a transatlantic flight to London when a narcotics dog smelled the drugs. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security agents proceeded to search him for drugs. Eni cooperated with the investigators and answered all of their questions. After a pat down and search of his bags they found nothing, but they trusted their dog’s nose, so they asked Eni to do an X-Ray.

The X-Ray revealed that Eni had foreign objects inside of his body. When questioned what those objects were, Eni admitted to swallowing 50 pellets of narcotics before he flew into Orlando. Emergency surgery revealed these pellets were filled with cocaine. He had a total of 54 of them in his digestive track.

Orlando area narcotics canines are not new to sniffing out big cases. Narcotics dog Tebow, named after the Denver Bronco quarterback Tim Tebow, was recently credited with sniffing out a cocaine stuffed toy. Tebow is not credited with sniffing out this case however.

Eni stated that he was traveling to Nigeria to attend his brother’s funeral. Eni, 54, is from Nigeria but is a naturalized citizen living in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was carrying the drugs overseas to hep pay for the funeral. Now, instead of giving his brother his final farewell, he will spend his time explaining himself to an Orlando federal drug lawyer.

Because of the amount of cocaine in his possession, it is believed that Eni was working as what is known as a drug mule. Drug mules carry illegal substances across borders in exchange for money. Besides the risk of imprisonment, those who carry the drugs in their body also risk their lives. Because they swallow such large amounts of drugs at one time, actually absorbing the drugs would be fatal.

In order to transport the drugs, pellets are made out of impermeable materials, such as condoms, to prevent the body from absorbing them. However, stomach acids can break down the materials and cause the pellets to dissolve. When this happens, the drugs are immediately absorbed into the body and often causes death.

Eni was not injured by the pellets, but he was sentenced six months after his arrest to serve 24 months in federal prison. He was charged and convicted of cocaine possession with the intent to distribute. Because Eni is a naturalized citizen, he was not deported, but he did also receive three years of supervised release following his two year sentence. During that time he will have to be monitored by US Probation officials.

Eni’s case was handled by customs and Florida Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation but Federal officials eventually prosecuted it. An Orlando Federal Drug lawyer would have assisted in this case.