The Brikama Magistrates’ Court has started legal proceedings against six Nigerian nationals that were arrested at the Banjul International Airport for allegedly attempting to smuggle cocaine out of the country.

The case, which began on Thursday of last week, jump-started with the testimony of a senior drug police ASP Neneh Sowe.

In her evidence before a crowded but hushed courtroom, officer Sowe adduced that the six suspects were arrested at the airport in November of this year as they tried to board an airplane en route Amsterdam.

According to ASP Sowe, the accused persons were arrested and their travelling documents confiscated when the drug officers on the ground smelt rat.

“I instructed Sgt. Bakary O. Jatta to inform the airline that the journey of the six would be cancelled .I then telephoned commissioners Sarr, Sanneh and Jatta who later arrived at the scene,” she told the court. 

“The suspects were subsequently taken to the RVTH but the commissioners were advised not to administer any drug to them. However, in the morning of the following day they requested to be allowed to go to the toilet and were given buckets. In the process, they ejected certain quantities of cocaine. It was there that I recorded statements from them.”

The case was at that juncture adjourned for continuation.