Authorities say a Nigerian man has been caught at a Washington-area airport after having swallowed heroin pellets, at least the fifth time such a smuggling attempt has been thwarted since March. Nyeson Ibeh is charged in federal court in Alexandria with importing a controlled substance into the United States.
He was taken into custody after he arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport on Oct. 7 on a flight from Rome, according to a criminal complaint.
The complaint says Ibeh told Customs and Border Protection officers during a secondary inspection that he intended to travel to Orlando, Fla., for a vacation at Disney World, but his travel documents indicated that he was on his way to Maryland.
The CBP officers also noticed that his stomach was unusually rigid, the complaint says.
X-rays showed that there were foreign items in his abdomen. Ibeh expelled pellets, which field-tested positive for heroin, according to the complaint.
Court documents don’t say how many pellets he swallowed. But their total weight, the complaint says, was about 404 grams — which is slightly less than one pound.
The complaint says that Ibeh “acknowledged that he swallowed the pellets, which he understood contained drugs.”
Ibeh’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
Officials say drug smuggling through Dulles is a growing concern, and at least four other people have been charged in recent months after swallowing heroin pellets and landing at the airport.
All were from Nigeria, but none of the cases appear to be related.
The most recent, a 61-year-old woman, was arrested in late September after she expelled about a pound of heroin pellets, according to court records.
In June, a man who swallowed more than three pounds of heroin was taken into custody. And in a one-week span in March, two people were arrested after each swallowed about four pounds of pellets. All three of them have pleaded guilty, court records show.
Drug smugglers aren’t just trying to transport contraband through their bodies. Last week, CBP officers seized cocaine-stuffed bed posts from a courier who arrived on a flight from El Salvador.
Other items seized at local airports in recent drug-smuggling attempts include religious statues, juice boxes, soup packets and clams.
