NEW YORK - A 13-year-old boy who arrived in New York with 87 packets of heroin in his stomach faces up to 18 months in a juvenile facility after being found guilty of felony drug possession. <br>
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Prince Nnaedozie Umegbolu was convicted Monday of criminal possession of a controlled substance for smuggling drugs while entering the United States from Nigeria. <br>
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Umegbolu, who testified that he was smuggling the drugs so that he could reunite with his mother in Georgia, is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 7. <br>
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``He was a very determined and intelligent young man who wanted to come to this country and this was his means to do so,'' said Family Court Judge Fran Lubow. <br>
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Authorities said Prince swallowed heroin-filled condoms a few days before beginning his trip to New York on April 10, but became sick before meeting someone who had promised him $1,900 to act as a courier. <br>
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Umegbolu, an American citizen, had been living with his grandparents in Abuja, Nigeria. The boy's father is imprisoned in the United States for recruiting drug mules to smuggle heroin into Georgia. <br>
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Earlier this year, a family court judge denied custody to the boy's mother, Alissa Walden of Norcross, Ga., while he awaited trial.
