Venezuelan jailed for 22 years over drug trafficking

Sep 19, 2018

Rodriguez Fagundez Albelys Doralys was arrested in June in possession of 1660 grammes of cocaine which she had swallowed

Entebbe Magistrates Court has sentenced a 24-year-old female Venezuelan national to 22 years in prison for drug trafficking through Entebbe International Airport.

Entebbe Grade 1 Magistrate Susan Okeny sentenced Rodriguez Fagundez Albelys Doralys to Kigo prison on two counts of unlawful possession of narcotic drugs for 11 years and trafficking narcotic drugs for 11 years and a fine of sh10m to be served concurrently.

Court also issued an immediate deportation order to Doralys after serving her sentence.

Doralys was arrested on 18th June, 2018 for possessing a total of 1.66kgs of cocaine which she had swallowed and was charged with unlawful possession of narcotic drugs and trafficking in narcotic drugs vide Case Reference AVPOL CRB 142/2018.

The punishment provided for in section 4(2) (a) of the Narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances control Act 2016 for possession of narcotic drugs is a fine not less than five hundred currency points or 3 times the market value of the drug.

However, The Ministry of Internal Affairs has not yet appointed a government valuer in such drug cases.

Entebbe Aviation police commandant ASP Jasper Oloka indicated that Interpol had indicated to the Aviation police at Entebbe that Doralys had initially booked to travel from Sao Paulo in Brazil to Addis Ababa through Nairobi on June 17, 2018 on flight no. ET507 but suddenly changed her routing and arrived at Entebbe International Airport on 18thJune, 2018 on Ethiopian Airlines flight no. ET338.

Oloka said that once police was armed with intelligence information that Doralys was in possession of drugs, she was identified by Aviation police and Uganda Revenue Authority customs officials on arrival.

"Her bags were searched but no drugs were found. However, after being subjected to a body scan, it was discovered that she had swallowed over 114 pellets (1660 grams) of suspected cocaine," Oloka said in a statement.

Upon questioning, Oloka explained that Doralys told police that she left Venezuela and went to Sao Paulo in Brazil and started working in Gavion supermarket.  

According to her statement, on June 15, 2018 she was approached by a man only known to her as Antonio who promised to get her a better paying job.

In her narrative Doralys said that Antonio reportedly took her to a house located in ‘Villa Yolanda' in Sao Paulo and forced her to swallow the pellets and she was then escorted to the airport where she boarded a plane to Addis Ababa.

On arrival at Entebbe, she was supposed to go to Alcom hotel in Kibuli, Uganda where somebody she did not know by face or name was to receive her. Upon completion of her mission Doralys was supposed to be paid $2,000 (about sh7.7m).

Airport staff fined

In a similar case the Entebbe Magistrates court has also fined Mr. Adson Ampaire a worker with the Entebbe ground handling firm, National Aviation Services (NAS) for conspiracy to airlift 8kgs of heroine at Entebbe International Airport.

The accused had hidden the cocaine in a staff van Reg no UAW019D which was intercepted by the CAA, Aviation Security.

Oloka said that two NAS drivers Ampaire and Aggrey Ngelo were on 30th August, 2018 arrested with 8kgs of heroine trying traffic it through the airport's southern gate.

Ampaire, a resident of Sheema Municipality, was on the September 7th presented before Entebbe Grade 1 Magistrate Court and pleaded guilty for conspiracy and was charged with a two year sentence or a fine of sh500,000.

His co-accused Ngelo from Kamuli district is on the run and wanted by the police to answer charges of drug trafficking.

SP Oloka said that the drug traffickers operate in cells (network) which makes it hard to break through and discover the ring leaders.

"Even the traffickers that we have arrested cannot tell who the owners of the business are. They operate in a network like a mafia group hard to know each other," he said.

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