E-Paper
Venezuelan woman gets 10 years of jail for smuggling cocaine
Venezuelan national Yurena Marchena has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for smuggling 1.8 kg of cocaine while travelling in an Ethiopian Airlines flight in November 2017. Her partner, a Nigerian national, was acquitted of all charges due to lack of evidence.
MUMBAI: A Venezuelan national Yurena Marchena has been sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment by a special NPDS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) court on Monday for smuggling 1.8 kg cocaine while travelling in an Ethiopian Airline in November 2017.
Marchena was caught at the city airport when Customs officials found drugs weighing 1.830 kg in her bag. The forensic examination of the contraband confirmed it was cocaine. Further investigation revealed that the drugs had to be delivered in Goa at a resort to Ejike Anichukwu, a Nigerian national, on November 7, 2017.
Marchena during the trial claimed that the bag was not hers and was given to her by her partner. She said she was not aware that the bag containing cocaine.
Anichukwu was caught after the NCB officials laid a trap at La Vaiencia beach, Goa, to catch him when Marchena went to deliver the drug.
His lawyer Dilip Mishra explained that his client was caught because of the confusion created by Marchena and it was a case of mistaken identity.
Mishra said that on the day when the officials had laid the trap, Anichukwu was just standing there coincidently, as a car had dashed the vehicle in which he was travelling, and the actual accused, sitting in a different car managed to escape from the place.
The prosecution could not prove that Anichukwu was the one who came to collect the parcel containing Cocaine and hence, he was acquitted of all the charges.
