Customs officers arrested a Venezuelan man who had swallowed almost 1kg of cocaine after he became desperate to go to the toilet, a court heard yesterday. Alarcon Galindez Jose Omar, 30, yesterday pleaded guilty in the Court of First Instance to trafficking 818.16 grams of the drug which had a retail price of between $550,000 and $1.6 million. Mr Justice Colin Jackson jailed him for 13 years and six months. The court heard plainclothes custom officers stopped Omar on May 3 last year as he got off a KLM flight from Amsterdam. After agreeing to a luggage search, officers tested his baggage using an ion-scan machine and found a high presence of cocaine. He was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital for an examination. Soon after arriving, Omar admitted to having swallowed drugs and said he could no longer 'hold back,', the court heard. Over the next 24 hours, he passed a total of 100 pellets containing the drug. In jailing Omar, Mr Justice Jackson said he took into account the defendant's remorse, guilty plea and the impact his arrest had had on his family.
