The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says its operatives have arrested a 40-year-old ‘businessman’, Sherif Egbo, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja
NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, said a body scanner revealed that Egbo had wraps of illicit drugs in his stomach.
He stated that the suspect was nabbed on October 14 while attempting to board an Air France flight to Paris, France, after the anti-narcotics agents discovered he ingested illicit drugs.
“He was subsequently placed under observation at the agency’s exhibit recovery room where he excreted 93 pellets of heroin weighing 2.222 kilogrammes. In his statement, the suspect claimed he works at a chicken hatchery farm in Madrid, Spain, and also in the drug trafficking business,” the NDLEA spokesman said.
At the NAHCO imports shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, officials of the agency seized a consignment of 10 cartons containing 500,000 pills of tramadol 225mg branded as tapentadol on Monday, October 16.
Shipped from India through Qatar Airways with airwaybill number MAWB 319-01227236, the cargo was purported to be a transit cargo to Monrovia, Liberia. However, the lid was blown open through partnership and real-time intelligence-sharing mechanisms between NDLEA and its Liberian counterpart.
Similarly, NDLEA operatives foiled an attempt by an intending passenger, Ngene Chinecherem, to Muscat, Oman on Qatar Airways, to export 11.100kgs of skunk and 600 grams of tramadol concealed in foodstuffs.
The suspect was arrested at the Lagos airport and seized the illicit substances, Babafemi stated in the statement
In Imo State, NDLEA operatives intercepted a Mercedes Benz container truck marked ABN 418 YN parked in an isolated area along the Owerri-Onitsha Expressway on Sunday, October 15. A search of the abandoned truck led to the recovery of 168 bags of skunk weighing 1,854 kilograms.
The agency said that less than 1,381.3kgs of the same substance were seized in four interdiction operations in parts of Edo state including – Ekpon community, Igueben LGA; Iguiye forest in Ovia North East LGA; Iruekpen, Ndokwa West where a suspect, Monday Nwocha was arrested; and in Egwalor village in Onwude LGA where the duo of Obune Prince and Chika Obi were arrested and their Audi 80 salon car marked BEN 406 CL loaded with cannabis sativa, recovered.
In Kano state, an ex-convict, Aminu Suleiman, 46, was arrested along with Haruna Abdurrahaman, 41, and Ojo Esezobor, 34, at Gadar Tamburawa area of the state on Saturday, October 14 while 106kgs of cannabis were recovered from them. The NDLEA noted that Aminu was first arrested with 22kgs of cannabis on June 3, 2022, and was convicted by the court on November 24, 2022.
Four other suspects – Inusa Ali, Yahaya Musa, Abba Audu, Ali Abubakar, and Bunu Kyari were also arrested at Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano on Monday 16th October for dealing in 75.3kgs of skunk.
Operatives of the Zone J Command of the NDLEA seized 478kgs of cannabis in a forest in Ikere Ekiti on Friday, October 20 recovered a total of 928kgs of the same substance in a bush by Shagari market, along Ifon-Owo express road, and Ibola camp, Ipele forest in Ondo State.
In Borno State, a suspect, Sani Mohammed, was nabbed on Saturday, October 21, with 182kgs of cannabis at Njimtilo, along Maiduguri – Damaturu road.
In another operation, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations, DOGI, attached to courier companies on Sunday, October 15, intercepted 1kg methamphetamine concealed in containers of body cream going to New Zealand as well as another consignment of 2.5kgs cocaine and phenacetin hidden in walls of a carton heading to Saudi Arabia.
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