NIGERIAN drug smuggler Shehu Adisa has been jailed for 17 years

NIGERIAN drug smuggler Shehu Adisa has been jailed for 17 years by the Woolwich Crown Court in the UK after being found guilty of being the mastermind of a drug  ring that shipped cocaine and methamphetamine into the country.   Earlier this month, Mr Adisa, 39 from Upper Clapton in east London,  was found guilty of masterminding attempts to smuggle millions of pounds of hard drugs in and out of the UK. He was arrested on May 2 as he arrived for an immigration interview and a search of his flat uncovered a Nigerian passport and incriminating documents showing travel bookings and payments from his attempts to recruit couriers and sort out travel arrangements for five separate smuggling operations.   Dawn Cartwright, from the National Crime Agency’s border policing command, said Mr Adisa had played a prominent role in what was a wider organised crime network. Mr Adisa was found guilty for his involvement in the five incidents at Woolwich Crown Court on December 2 and has now been sentenced to prison.   Ms Cartwright, said: “He was a crucial link in the chain with contacts in Africa and around the world and was directly responsible for facilitating the trafficking of millions of pounds worth of class A drugs. Working with Border Force colleagues, we are determined to prevent smugglers like Adisa bringing illegal drugs into the UK and causing terrible damage to our communities.”   His first offence was said to have taken place in July 2011, when another Nigerian Adetokunbo Bakare, was arrested at Bristol Airport. She had travelled from Cameroon with 5kg of cocaine in her suitcase and was subsequently arrested, tried and jailed for eight years.   Then last May, couriers Maros Kristof and Eva Makunova, from the Czech Republic, were arrested at Newcastle International Airport after flying out of Gambia via Brussels with 2.7kg of cocaine and 1.6 kg of methamphetamine on them. They were sentenced to six and four-and-a-half years in jail respectively.   In August 2012 Spaniard Kepa Quintana Landaburu was sentenced to eight years with hard labour after being picked up by Japanese police at Tokyo’s Narita Airport, carrying 1.2kg of methamphetamine, having flown out from the UK. Then on March 5 this year, Adeyinka Adeoti was intercepted at Birmingham Airport carrying 1.3kg of cocaine concealed in the struts of a suitcase.   Mr Adeoti was later jailed for four years and 10 months in jail for his offence. All of the smugglers were reported to be working for Mr Adisa, described as the ring leader of the gang