The Seychelles Supreme Court sentenced two foreign nationals last week for the importation of cocaine, said the police in a press release on Friday.

According to the police, a 58-year-old businessman from Nigeria, Patrick Ikechukwu Uwaoma, was sentenced to 30 years after he was found guilty of the importation of cocaine.

Uwaoma, who was residing in the United States, was intercepted by the police and customs officers at the airport on November 20 last year. He arrived in Seychelles on an Ethiopian Airlines flight. During a search of his luggage, the officers found a little more than 4.5 kg of cocaine.

Another foreign national, a 42-year-old Nicaraguan, German Augusto Brook Dixon, was sentenced to five years in prison.

The police said that Brook Dixon was also intercepted by the police and customs officers on October 4 after he arrived in the island nation on a flight from Dubai. He had over 4 kg of cocaine in his possession.  

The Nicaraguan, who said he was not employed, was sentenced to five years in prison after he cooperated in the investigation and pleaded guilty to the charge against him.

In 2021, a total of 7.23 kg of cocaine was seized according to the statistics of the National Drug Observatory (NDO) data provided by the former Anti-Narcotics Bureau.  

Seychelles, a group of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean, has a zero-tolerance policy towards trafficking and importation of illegal drugs. If found guilty, the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.