MOM REUNITED WITH BOY WHO WAS DRUG MULE

New York --- After more than 15 hours of driving and dread, Alissa
Walden finally reached her 12-year-old son, Prince Nnaedozie Umegbolu.

He was in a New York hospital room on Saturday, guarded by police,
after he allegedly swallowed 87 condoms filled with heroin before
beginning a 16 1/2 hour trek that saw him fly alone from Lagos,
Nigeria, to London to New York City.

Walden brought her son a white teddy bear. And when she walked out of
his room after seeing her son, the look on her face had changed to
one of relief.

She almost seemed to smile.

Walden had worn a look of dire concern as she and four relatives sat
a vigil in the hospital waiting room. The waiting was just more
anguish for the mother who had sent her boy to live with relatives in
Nigeria more than two years ago.

She said she knew nothing of her son's plan to pay for his passage
home by becoming a drug mule.

This was not your average mother and son reunion.

Their two journeys came together at the New York Hospital Medical
Center of Queens.

His desperate journey prompted his mother to make one of her own ---
a straight drive from her Norcross home through daylight to darkness
and daylight again.

"I don't know how he is. That's why we're going up there," said
Walden during a phone call from the road Friday night. "I'm coming to
New York."

The family said prayers along the way, convincing themselves that,
despite what had happened, they were blessed.

Detectives investigating the case acknowledged it was incredible. A
22-year veteran, Detective Sgt. Raymond DiLena of the Port Authority
Police Department said he had never seen a "drug mule" so young.

He was amazed the boy's slight body, weighing about 100 pounds, could
hold so much. Police say the packages each held three to five grams.

Atlanta police spokesman John Quigley said the value of the drugs
could range from $168,000 to $280,000, depending on its purity.

After speaking to the child at the New York Hospital Medical Center
of Queens, the detective said, "He's very well spoken, mature for his
age." Three days after the boy ingested the drugs and flew to New
York, only to get sick and be handed over to police by a cab driver,
he was awake and alert in stable condition.

His mother's journey was also painful. Walden is recovering from a
car accident and has been taking pain killers. When her car pulled up
to the hospital, she got out and a relative helped her walk off the
effects of the grueling drive.

Her son was in the pediatric unit and wanting to see his mother.

But that didn't happen, at least not right away.

"You can't see him," a police officer at the hospital told them. "The
detectives are coming over and they want to talk to you. Even after
that, you still might not be able to see him."

So she sat in the waiting room. At 2:45 p.m., after the detective
arrived and spoke to the mother, she was allowed to see her son. She
declined to comment on the meeting.

Authorities expect her son will be released from the hospital in a
day or two. He was able to pass all the condoms successfully, and
none of the drug entered his system, said Patrick Clarke, a spokesman
for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

Authorities used drug-sniffing dogs to search a Brooklyn apartment
building that the boy took a cab to from the airport, but came up
with nothing. The boy, who has been charged with juvenile delinquency
possession of a controlled substance, could face a hearing Monday.