Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested two women and six men over alleged attempts to import hundreds of cocaine pellets into Nigeria and export thousands of Tramadol 255mg tablets among other illicit drugs to Europe.
The suspects were arrested at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja; Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA), Enugu, and Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
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The arrests and seizures began on July 17 when a 52-year-old father of three, Okwo Paul Okechukwu, was arrested upon his arrival from Addis Ababa, via an Ethiopian Airlines flight, at the Abuja airport for ingesting 76 pellets of cocaine.
During preliminary interview, Okechukwu who hails from Enugu Ezike, Igbo Eze LGA, Enugu State, said he was into selling women’s wigs and hair attachments before veering into the drug trade.
The spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, said on Sunday in Abuja that the suspect has since completed excreting all the 76 wraps of the drug he swallowed while under observation at the agency’s facility in Abuja.
Another father of three, Lawrence Chijioke, 42, was arrested at the Abuja airport the same day in an operation between NDLEA and Nigeria Customs Service at the NAIA.
Chijioke, who hails from Umuahia, in Abia State, was arrested during an inward clearance of an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa with 529 pellets of cocaine weighing 11.70kg concealed in his bag.
“In his statement to anti-narcotic officers, he claimed he was promised N2 million, which he planned to use to boost his business upon successful delivery of the cocaine consignment in Abuja,” Babafemi said.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives on Saturday, July 23, arrested Ms. Onuorah Caritas, 29, at the Enugu airport upon arrival on Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa.
A search of her luggage led to the discovery of 2.192kg of cocaine concealed in two designer women’s women handbags with false lining.
Meanwhile, the operatives had on Monday, July 18, intercepted some illicit substances concealed in a consolidated cargo going to Dubai, UAE.
