Man attempted to smuggle coke worth £80,000 by swallowing 79 packages before 5,000-mile journey

A MAN attempted to smuggle cocaine worth £80,000 by swallowing 79 packages before a 5,000-mile journey.

Benjamin Nwaogwugwu, 43, downed the 1kg haul in South America before flying to Paris, then the UK.

Cavendish

Benjamin Nwaogwugwu, 43, downed the huge 1kg haul at a hotel in South America before he flew to Paris and then home to the UK[/caption]

Cavendish Press

Nwaogwugwu was stopped at Manchester airport on June 1 after Border Agency officers saw him grimacing in discomfort[/caption]

But he was stopped at Manchester airport on June 1 after Border Agency officers saw him grimacing in discomfort.

Nwaogwugwu initially told them he had been in Paris for the UEFA Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid.

But phone analysis showed up images of French Guiana.

The father of three was arrested and taken to hospital, where it took two days to pass all the packages.

Experts tested 19 of them and found they contained cocaine with a purity of up to 89 per cent.

Nwaogwugwu, of Longsight, Manchester, later said he had been pressured by gangsters, who threatened to harm relatives in his native Nigeria.

He was told to swallow 100 packages in Cayenne, French Guiana, but was physically unable to ingest them all.

Nwaogwugwu pleaded guilty to importation of cocaine at Minshull Street crown court and was jailed for four years and two months.

Judge Tina Landale told him: “You co-operated with it and then you tried to lie your way out of it.”