Trafficker recruits, plants drug on Dubai-bound orphan – NDLEA

• …As another excretes 47 wraps of cocaine

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, have arrested a human trafficker, Mathew Bassey, who tried to cannabis to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), by putting them in the luggage of an orphan, Ms Peter Gift Eno, who he recruited for a “job” in the UAE.

Spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday in Abuja, said Bassey (29) from Oron LGA, Akwa Ibom State, was arrested on Wednesday, July 6, following the interception of Eno at the departure hall of the airport.

According to him, when Eno’s luggage was searched, 50 parcels of cannabis weighing 2.80kg concealed in food items were discovered while there were discrepancies between the age she declared and the date of birth on her international passport.

Babafemi said, “A further interview revealed that the trafficker who recruited and brought her to the airport, Mathew Bassey, was lurking around the airport, waiting for her departure. He was promptly tracked and arrested.

“Investigation showed that the victim who hails from the same Oron LGA of Akwa Ibom State like Bassey recently lost her mother which made it easy for Bassey to recruit her with the promise of securing her a job in Dubai.

“It was further discovered that the recruiter leveraged on the victim’s naivety and planted the drug on her bag for onward delivery to his contact in Dubai.”

In a related development, a trafficker, Aloysius Ajuruchukwu Onyekwe, a.k.a Kelvin, who was travelling by road to Algeria ostensibly through Sokoto State with ingested 47 wraps of cocaine was intercepted on Sunday, July 3, at Ojo Park, Ibadan, Oyo State, by NDLEA operatives following intelligence shared by the Department of State Services (DSS).

Onyekwe (26), who hails from Owerri West LGA, Imo State, was travelling with an 18-year-old lady, Blessing Nwoke.

While in the custody of the NDLEA, Onyekwe excreted 47 pellets of cocaine and confessed that he began his journey to Algeria from Cele area of Okota, Lagos, where he ingested the illicit drug, weighing 1.1kg.