17th March, 2011
A former Nigerian soccer player, Wasiu Sanni and his wife, Mutiat, have been jailed for smuggling cocaine into Australia.
They were arrested with cocaine at Brisbane airport in Australia. According to The Couriermail.Com, Sanni and his wife had their young daughter with them when they were caught smuggling cocaine into Brisbane, a court heard.
In the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Commonwealth prosecutor Kylie Ward explained most of the submissions in the case were done in writing because of the language difficulties for both Wasiu Sanni, 52, and his wife Mutiat Sanni, 52.
Ms Ward, in her written submissions, said Mr and Mrs Sanni raised the interest of customs officers when Mr Sanni could not name any of the Australian cities they intended to visit.
She said a drug detection dog gave a positive reaction to Mr. Sanni and a bag containing child’s clothing.
Ms Ward said the Sannis were later taken to hospital where 74 pellets of white powder were collected from Mr Sanni, and 77 from Mrs Sanni.
It was discovered that in total Mrs Sanni was concealing 913.1 grams of powder, which was 53.7 percent pure cocaine for a total weight of the drug at 490.3 grams.
Mr Sanni had 946.6 grams, with a purity of 55.7 percent being 527.2 grams of pure cocaine.
The Sannis both pleaded guilty to importing a marketable quantity of cocaine, on March 23 last year.
Acting Justice Julie Dick said she had read the written submissions from defence counsel Steve Crofton, for Mrs Sanni, and Catherine Morgan, for Mr Sanni, and had taken the couples’ background into account.
Justice Dick said Mr Sanni was the father of nine children, and had run a clothing store business in Nigeria.
She said when the business was badly damaged by fire, the land was resumed and Mr Sanni found himself pressed for outstanding debts.
Mr Sanni had approached a neighbour for a loan, but the man had instead arranged for Mr Sanni to carry drugs to Australia for him.
Justice Dick said Mr Sanni had been an international football player for Nigeria, had no previous convictions and was a courier at the lowest end of the importation scale.
She said the Sannis had their seven-year-old daughter with them at the airport, and Mrs Sanni had only brought the child because there was no one to watch her in Nigeria.
Mrs Sanni had other children aged 13, 26, and 28 in Nigeria, had no previous convictions, and also was a courier.
Justice Dick sentenced both to seven years jail, with a non-parole period of 3½ years, and declared 360 days of the sentence had been served on remand.
