HOW I ESCAPED FROM UK,US PRISONS - EX-FEMALE DRUG TRAFFICKER.

As a teenager in the 70s, Mrs. Iya­bo Yomi’s greatest dream was to climb the social ladder at all costs. That quest pushed her into joining a drug trafficking cartel which landed her in and out of several prisons across the world. After several jailbreaks and series of unfinished prison sentenc­es, she was arrested in Ghana where she decided to turn a new leaf and complete her 10-year jail term. Broken but grateful to God for having spared her life, Iyabo, who is in her early 60s, went down memory lane to tell Satur­day Sun the story of journeys through sev­eral prisons including how she broke out of UK prison twice and once in US prison. She is currently involved in a ministry that sees to the rehabilitation of persons going in and out of prison.  “I got it all wrong from the very beginning. It was all about enjoying myself and climbing the social ladder at all costs. Shortly after my secondary education in 1975, I told my parents that I wanted to travel down to London to further my edu­cation. Every big boy and girl was travel­ling to London for business or studies then. Initially, my mother refused, insisting that I was too young to be alone. She, however, took me to Mecca twice, and I became an Alhaja at 18. “I was able to convince my mother and she allowed me to travel out of the coun­try. I got to London and made some friends. During the period I spent in London, I was able to research the possibility of owning a shop in London. “I came back, was able to raise 500 pounds and prepared to travel back to Lon­don. My aunty gave me a parcel to help de­liver to a friend in London. I never knew that she added Indian hemp in the package. When they called me to open my bag at the airport, I innocently opened the bag, and they found the wrap. I was arrested and tak­en to Reading police station and later sent to Holloway prison”, she stated In the prison, she was convinced that drug peddling was the key to the success that she sought.  “I met a lot of Nigerians, it was there that they told me the worth of what I was carrying. I couldn’t believe it, that I just got the key to my wealth. Luckily, I was given three years suspended sentence and later deported back to Nigeria.” Insatiable lust for wealth Back home in Nigeria, all that was in Iyabo’s mind was how to start moving In­dian hemp from Nigeria to London.  “I im­mediately got another passport with another name and started my trip with packs of Indi­an hemp. It was a good business and money started to flow. I continued till 1981 when I was arrested. I was pregnant with my sec­ond child. I was 26 years old and full of en­ergy. For the sake of my pregnancy, I was also given suspended sentence and deported back to Nigeria. “The more they arrested me, the more I became crazy and determined to continue in drug pushing. I kept strategizing and perfecting my skills. I was young and very rich. I did not know the value of money then, I was ready to spend it on anything. At the age of 20, I bought the latest car, BMW sports for myself.” Still not satisfied, Iyabo got another passport and returned to London. “Getting passports was easy then, unlike now that is very difficult. I got a new passport with a new name and entered London again. After several successful trips, I was arrested again and jailed. Then I was pregnant and almost due to deliver. I actually gave birth there and handed over my baby to my friend. I did that because I needed to come out and claim my baby. If they discovered that there was no body, government would claim that child. “They later transferred me to Asken grange where I met those who were in for much more terrible offences. We hatched a plan and escaped by jumping through the fence. I was able to get a travel certificate after I bought a British birth certificate from a white friend and moved over to Holland. I went to the Nigerian embassy and told them that I lost my things in transit. They gave me ticket and a covering passport back to Nigeria. This did not change me. Naturally, as a mother, I am supposed to slow down and face my family but I had so much mon­ey and left them at the mercy of my mother, relatives and friends.” While in Holland, Iyabo got a connec­tion to start trafficking heroin. “It was much better and you can carry as much quantity as possible. I decided to try US and it was a huge success. I could travel every two weeks to US with wraps of heroin. I suc­cessfully moved drugs in and out of US for more than 24 times before I was caught. I was remanded at MCC in New York and sentenced to five years imprisonment. I was later moved over to West Virginia prisons in US, where I was to serve my remaining sen­tence. It was there that I met a friend from Columbia, her case was worse than mine. We also hatched a plan and escaped after spending several months. We scaled the wall and ran away. They declared a man­hunt but because everything about me was fake including my passport, it wasn’t easy to find me. I quickly made arrangements and got the services of a man who posed as my husband. We got a ticket from Boston to Washington and then to London. “Whites love couples and they believe so much in them, so it was easy for me to move ahead of the man and just wave that my hus­band was right behind me with my passport. Since I had a boarding pass, they would let me through. I immediately disappeared in the crowd. In London, I told them that I was in transit, that I did not know what was holding back my husband. They allowed me through and promised to help sort it out. This was how I landed in Nigeria. “But instead of change of mind, I became worse than I was before. I changed location, from Bangkok, India, Thailand, Pakistan and different countries in Europe and Asia. My craze continued even after giving birth to five kids. One thing I never did was to take drugs. Most successful drug couriers do not take drugs. I was very confident of myself and never wore anything with metal to avoid the machine from asking me to re­turn. The machines then could not detect if you were carrying hard drugs. The officer would only watch if you are nervous. I was so perfect that even with my body heav­ily laced with drug, I will stop a drug en­forcement agent and request for direction to where I was going to. I also stayed away from Mecca and Israel because these coun­tries are sacred. As I said earlier, I became an Alhaja at the age of 18, I only visited the country to seek God’s forgiveness. I feel bad when I see those who carry drugs to Mecca and Israel in the name of seeking the face of God”, Iyabo narrated.