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The Tanzanian businessman who swallowed about 100 pellets of cocaine concealed in his stomach has been jailed seven years with hard labour by the Lusaka Magistrate Court.
Jacob Segoa Mzinga admitted to trafficking in 2.464 killograms of cocaine.
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Mzinga was arrested last month by the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and charged with two counts of trafficking in narcotic substances and unlawful importation of Cocaine into Zambia.
The said crimes were committed on July 17, 2023 in Lusaka.
Lusaka Chief Resident Magistrate, Davies Chibwili, convicted the accused on both counts.
In mitigation, Mzinga through his lawyer, Bevan Mengo, pleaded for mercy saying his wife and three children back home would suffer if slapped a custodial sentence, and pleaded with the court to consider a suspended sentence.
Magistrate Chibwili, however, sentenced Mzinga to seven years imprisionment with hard labour on both counts to run concurrently.
“The accused swallowed the pellets and carried them in his stomach. That makes a person who was determined to carry out his mission. Cocaine is a hard drug and the persons who are involved must not be left to go with just a slap on the wrist but must be punished,” he said.
Facts are that DEC had received a tip that Mzinga was coming to Zambia from Brazil on Ethiopian Airlines flight no. ET 891 from Addis Ababa.
After his apprehension at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport (KKIA), at around 04:18 hours, Mzinga requested to use the toilet and excreted 11 pellets of suspected narcotics.
He was then transferred to the Lusaka Province office and later to the University Teaching Hospital for an x-ray. While there at about 11:35 hours, he excreted 12 pellets .
When he was taken back to Lusaka Province office,he excreted 26 pellets and on July 19, 15 pellets and another 20 pellets .
On July 21, the convict excreted seven pellets bringing the total to 111 pellets of suspected narcotics.
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