Prince jailed for smuggling coke

Seventeen of the 23 onions contained cocaine

An African prince who tried to smuggle cocaine concealed inside onions into the UK has been jailed for 12 years.

Prince Adegbenie Olateru-Olagbegi, 55, thought the onion odour would hide his cache, worth £163,000, as he arrived at Heathrow Airport from Lagos, Nigeria.

He also packed shrimps and other pungent dried fish in his luggage - but failed to put off a drugs sniffer dog.

He denied all knowledge of the 17 hollowed-out onions containing 3.21kg of cocaine found in his luggage.

Max the sniffer dog smelt through the other pungent odours of 23 onions and the fish as the prince walked through the Nothing to Declare channel.

Prince Adegbenie Olateru-Olagbegi's life, needless to say, now lies in ruins Barrister Gideon Cammerman

He had had more luck at customs in Lagos, where he was waived through by customs officials.

Sentencing him at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London on Tuesday, Recorder Farouk Ahmed said: "You took advantage of your good character and high social standing in Nigeria to cause Nigerian Customs to waive you through."

The prince's barrister, Gideon Cammerman, said the prince had been a "simple courier".

"Prince Adegbenie Olateru-Olagbegi's life, needless to say, now lies in ruins."

The prince denied all knowledge of the cocaine in his luggage

However, Mr Ahmed said: "A man of your very considerable standing...and with your connections in high places in Nigeria, is highly unlikely to have been carrying these drugs for someone else and certainly not for some small reward.

"You were not acting as some hapless drugs mule."

The prince was arrested in March this year and convicted of smuggling on 1 September following an eight-day trial at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court in London.

He told his trial that his father is king to 450,000 subjects in Owo in southern Nigeria and that he has 149 siblings.

He had been involved in anti-drug work in Nigeria, run for office, and been a director of several companies, the court heard. He was also involved with several organisations which promoted good behaviour and Christian values among young men in Nigeria. His lawyer said he had faced "public pillory" in Nigeria since his arrest.