SA Woman Gets 25 Years for 5.75kg Heroin Smuggle

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday sentenced a 38-year-old South African woman to 25 years in prison for smuggling 5.75 kilogrammes of heroin into Nigeria, rejecting her emotional pleas for leniency as a mother travelling with her young child.

Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court convicted Will Jessica Ann after she pleaded guilty to a two-count charge of conspiracy and unlawful importation of the hard drug. The sentences of 15 years on the conspiracy count and 25 years on the importation count are to run concurrently, meaning she will serve a maximum of 25 years behind bars.

Ann was arrested on July 6, 2026, by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the arrival hall of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja. She had arrived on Qatar Airways Flight QR1433 from Doha, having earlier travelled from Cambodia.

She was accompanied by her three-year-old son.
According to the NDLEA, officers discovered 14 large blocks of heroin carefully concealed in two pieces of checked luggage. The suspect initially denied travelling with any checked-in bags.

However, operatives matched the baggage tags on the suitcases with the claim tags attached to her passport, after which she admitted ownership, claiming she had forgotten she had checked them in.

Intelligence gathered by the anti-narcotics agency indicated that Ann is a member of a transnational drug trafficking network operating along the Cambodia–South Africa axis together with her husband or partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager, a fellow South African who remains at large and is based in Cambodia.

The NDLEA arraigned her in August 2026 before Justice Egwuatu on the two-count charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/422/2026. Count one alleged conspiracy under Section 14 of the NDLEA Act, which carries a prison term of between 15 and 25 years. Count two charged her with the unlawful importation of 5.75 kilogrammes of heroin under Section 11(a) of the same Act, an offence punishable by life imprisonment.

Ann pleaded guilty. The court noted that she had already admitted the offence in her extrajudicial statement. The prosecution highlighted the street value of the seized heroin, estimated at about ₦18 million per kilogramme, giving a total of roughly ₦103.5 million.

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In her allocutus, Ann begged the court to temper justice with mercy. She said she was remorseful, claimed she did not know illicit drugs were in the bags, and promised never to engage in such an act again. Her counsel also pleaded for leniency, noting that she is a first-time offender and a mother whose young child has no one in Nigeria to care for him.

Justice Egwuatu acknowledged the pleas and the fact that she is a first-time offender, stating he was persuaded not to impose the maximum sentence of life imprisonment. However, he stressed that Nigerian law is not swayed by emotions. “Crime does not pay,” the judge declared, adding that the law does not respect sentiments.

He consequently sentenced her to 15 years’ imprisonment on Count 1 and 25 years on Count 2, ordered the terms to run concurrently, and directed that the heroin be destroyed if the convict fails to appeal within the time prescribed by law.

The case forms part of the NDLEA’s ongoing efforts to disrupt the trafficking of hard drugs through Nigeria’s international airports.

Authorities have indicated that arrangements will be made concerning the welfare of Ann’s three-year-old son.