Prince Nnaedozie Umegbolu, a U.S. citizen living with his grandparents…
By Courtney Dentch
A 12-year-old boy who had been living in Nigeria was arrested last week in Queens after he allegedly tried to smuggle into New York 87 egg-shaped packages of heroin he had swallowed.
Prince Nnaedozie Umegbolu, a U.S. citizen living with his grandparents in Abuja, Nigeria, told police he had agreed to transport the drugs for $1,900 and plane fare back to America, said Pasquale DiFulco, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Umegbolu was arrested at LaGuardia Airport early Thursday morning after he complained of stomach pains and began passing the drug packets wrapped in cellophane and sealed with tape, DiFulco said.
Umegbolu was treated at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens in Flushing and was expected to be released late Tuesday or Wednesday, hospital spokesman Paul Picard said.
The boy arrived alone at John F. Kennedy International Airport at 10:30 p.m. April 10 after a 16-1/2-hour flight from Nigeria to London, then on to New York, DiFulco said.
After a cab ride to a nonexistent Brooklyn address, Umegbolu made a phone call and was told to meet a contact at LaGuardia, DiFulco said. On the cab ride to the airport, Umegbolu began to feel ill and began passing the cellophane packets. The cab driver took him to the Port Authority Police headquarters at LaGuardia, where he was arrested and taken to the hospital.
By Friday Umegbolu had passed all the packets through his system, Picard said. The heroin was estimated to be worth about $80,000.
Umegbolu is charged with possession of a controlled substance as a juvenile delinquent. The case will be prosecuted by the Family Court Division of the Corporation Counsel, the city’s law department, said Kathleen Ahlers, Corporation Counsel spokeswoman. Prosecutors were expected to get the case late Tuesday or Wednesday, Ahlers said.
“As of today this case has not been referred to this office,” Family Court Division Chief Deborah Seidenberg said in a statement issued Tuesday. “It is our understanding that the juvenile has not been released from the hospital.”
An investigation was continuing into who supplied the boy with drugs and who he was to meet at LaGuardia, DiFulco said.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the boy will be prosecuted as a juvenile offender. “The true criminals in this terrible case are the cold-hearted and greedy dealers of death who risked the child’s life,” he said in a prepared statement.
The boy’s father, Chukwunwieke Umegbolu, is serving his seventh year of a 10-year sentence in Petersburg Federal Correctional Institute in Petersburg, Va., DiFulco said. The senior Umegbolu was convicted in 1995 with five others for their roles in a drug ring that imported at least $33 million in heroin into Georgia over a decade.
Umegbolu’s mother, Alissa Walden, lives in Georgia, and drove up to see her son Friday, Picard said.
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 138.
