Bunch Onyemachi Nnaka, 36, a Nigerian national ordinarily resident in Treviso, Italy, was today jailed for 11 years after he admitted to importing almost a kilo of heroin. He was also fined €25,000.
He made his admission shortly before he was about to face a trial by jury.
Nnaka was arrested shortly after arriving in Malta on a flight from Brussels on September 1, 2009. Capsules containing 985.95 grams of the drug were found in his stomach.
The court was told that Nnaka had met a man known only as Alex who instructed him to deliver the drug to a hotel in Malta. However he was arrested at the airport and the drug was discovered after a medical examination at Mater Dei Hospital. It had a street value of €43,300.