Drug runners may be targeting Nigerian women as "mules" after a British government clampdown in Jamaica

BBC News:

The number of Nigerian women on drugs charges in UK jails has risen almost sixfold in three years, figures supplied to the BBC News website show.

On 30 June this year 85 of the 151 Nigerian women in custody in the UK were being held for drugs offences. In 2002 there were just 15 out of 29.

The Home Office data also shows a rise among women from Trinidad and Tobago.

Foreign women make up 18% of the female prison population and about 60% of them are held on drugs offences.

These include swallowing or "stuffing" packages of cocaine, and carrying drugs in luggage or concealed in clothing.

The apparent shift to Nigeria comes two years after an outcry over the number of Jamaican female drugs mules in British jails, which climbed to more than 440 in 2002.

That number has now fallen to 136 following changes to policy regarding the early release of foreign prisoners and Operation Airbridge, a joint UK and Jamaican scheme that saw people-scanners installed at airports in Jamaica.

The UK Foreign Office also backed an educational programme on the island, aimed at women who may be approached by drug traffickers.

However Olga Heaven, director of the foreign prisoner support charity Hibiscus which led the educational programme in Jamaica, says drugs barons have probably simply moved their trade to elsewhere in the Caribbean and west Africa.

"I believe since the campaign started in Jamaica there has been a direct shift to Trinidad and also Nigeria - Nigeria even more so," she said.

"Guys who organise these people always try to stay one step ahead of the people who are deterring them so they will look and see what is going on and move accordingly."

HM Revenue and Customs said the number of Jamaicans trying to smuggle drugs to the UK by swallowing them had reduced by over 90% thanks to Operation Airbridge.

"We remain vigilant as the drugs organisers look for new ways to get round our operations," a spokeswoman said.

She added that Customs could not prove a link between the decline in Jamaica and the rise in Nigeria, but the successful operation in Jamaica had freed up resources to tackle the problem in "other risk areas such as west Africa".

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