Arrest
Tochi was arrested on November 28, 2004, in Changi Airport in Singapore while in transit. Authorities became suspicious after discovering that he had spent more than 24 hours in transit. One hundred capsules of diamorphine were found on him with a total weight of 727.02 grammes (a bit over a pound and a half), estimated by authorities to be worth S$1.5m (US$970,000). Tochi claimed that the capsules he carried were for a friend and insisted they were African herbs that tasted like chocolate. He swallowed a capsule to prove this, and police took him to a local hospital where he was given a laxative to flush the capsule out of his system.
His arrest led to the arrest of another African drug figure, Okeke Nelson Malachy, who was the 'sick friend' of Mr. Smith, to whom Tochi had been instructed to deliver the 'African herbs'. Tochi was waiting for Malachy to arrive from Medan, Indonesia, but Malachy's flight had been delayed.
Malachy denied being part of the conspiracy to import drugs, saying he came to Singapore to look for a second-hand car for use in South Africa. He stated that he was in the garment wholesale business; he did not have any business cards on him at the time of his arrest. He carried a South African passport, but officials believed he was Nigerian. Malachy was subsequently classified as stateless by officials. Later, the Department of Foreign Affairs of South Africa officially denied Malachy's South African citizenship.
Malachy's cellphone records and SIM card showed communication between him and "Mr. Smith", shortly after Malachy's plane from Medan landed at Changi Airport. Smith's cellphone number was stored in Malachy's SIM card under the name "Dogo", another of Smith's aliases, according to Tochi. The actual identity and whereabouts of "Mr. Smith" remain unknown.
Immediately after the arrest, Tochi phoned his brother in Nigeria for help. His brother has not informed their parents as he fears that this might add more burden to them.
Read more about this topic: Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi
Famous quotes containing the word arrest:
“Let me arrest thy thoughts; wonder with me,
Why plowing, building, ruling and the rest,
Or most of those arts, whence our lives are blest,
By cursed Cain’s race invented be,
And blest Seth vexed us with Astronomie.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)
“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. This is the artist’s way of scribbling “Kilroy was here” on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must someday pass.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.”
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)