PHOTO: 37 Military Hospital retrieves cocaine swallowed by drug trafficker

• Posted on September 14, 2015September 14, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Doctors at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra have successfully retrieved pellets of cocaine swallowed by a physically challenged Nigerian drug trafficker.

The narcotic drug was retrieved after an operation on the suspect, 55-year-old Okeke Ambrose Ifedili-Chukwu.

Attempts at two other hospitals were unsuccessful, sources at Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) told Joy News.

The physically challenged Nigerian arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) aboard an Emirates aircraft en route to Dubai when he was arrested.

According to the Deputy Executive Secretary of NACOB, Nii Lante Blankson, the suspect left Abidjan for Accra on transit.

Okeke was observed to be behaving abnormally while on the flight. He was promptly referred to the Aviation Clinic where officials observed him. He admitted swallowing an unknown number of pellets of cocaine when anti-narcotic officials interrogated him.

The suspect also revealed that he was heading to Dubai to deliver the substance after swallowing the pellets in Abidjan.

He was taken to Akai House Clinic in Accra where an X-ray examination confirmed that cocaine pellets had been lodged in his stomach.

The clinic advised that he be medically observed while he expelled the pellets from his stomach.

The suspect was taken back to the Aviation Clinic for further observation and for him to expel the pellets.

Mr Blankson said however, that when Okeke went back to the clinic, his condition became critical and so he was quickly transferred to the 37 Military Hospital for further treatment, where he expelled the pellets.