Friday, May 23, 2025 - A Nigerian drug trafficker who duped two pensioners into smuggling crystal meth into the UK has been sentenced to 9-years in prison.
The two pensioners were reportedly duped into smuggling
crystal meth into the UK inside bags of chocolate truffles by an international
drug trafficker from Nigeria.
According to Mail Online, Tonny Ezeh, 51, convinced Heinz
Magel, 80, and a 67-year-old man they were entitled to legitimate cash
windfalls and they had to travel abroad to get paid.
Ezeh, who holds Nigerian, Canadian, and Jamaican passports,
fooled the pair into carrying the drugs hidden in sweets into Britain for
onward flights to Hong Kong.
The 67-year-old was stopped at Heathrow on October
18 and three days later Magel was stopped at the airport on a flight
from Mexico City.
The German pensioners were unwittingly each carrying around
three kilos of methamphetamine worth up to £300,000.
Both were charged with smuggling class A drugs but the
charges were dropped once investigators established that Ezeh had scammed the
pair.
Ezeh admitted smuggling class A drugs when he appeared at Isleworth Crown Court yesterday, and was sentenced to nine years and three months in prison
It was reported that he was based in Mexico, where he
organised drug shipments with other Nigerian contacts across the world.
His mobile phones revealed that he was part of a West
African crime group responsible for transporting Class A drugs internationally
via air passenger courier and fast parcels.
Elderly and vulnerable couriers were singled out and
recruited via email finance scams.
Victims were told they were the beneficiaries of large sums
of money but to obtain their cash they travelled to Mexico to sign fake
paperwork.
They were then given gifts of 'Elvan Chocolate Truffles'
which were to be given to hosts in Hong Kong who would pay the pensioners.
But before the men could catch connecting flights to Hong
Kong, they were arrested by Border Force officers at Heathrow.
NCA officers arrested Ezeh when he flew into the UK on 23
December last year.
Magel, of Bautzen, Eastern Saxony, had been remanded in
custody when he appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates Court last October charged
with illegal importation of class A drugs.
The charge was dropped by prosecutors soon after.
NCA operations manager Peter Jones said: 'Tonny Ezeh is an
extremely callous criminal. He and his crime group singled out and took
advantage of elderly, vulnerable victims.
'He didn't care at all about the trauma the men would
experience when stopped, arrested and remanded in a foreign land.
'If an offer is too good to be true, it very likely is and
we urge anyone who is approached and asked to transport goods to think very
carefully.
'The NCA and partners at home and abroad continue to fight
the threat of class A drugs entering the UK.'
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