A 29-year-old South African, Erasmus Jean-Pierre, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), trying to export 2.6kgs of methamphetamine concealed in his luggage to the Middle East through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) Abuja on Wednesday, August 23, 2023.
Spokesman of NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, revealed on Sunday in a statement that the suspect was intercepted by the anti-narcotic operatives during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 404 from Abuja to the Middle East via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the illicit drug recovered.
“A thorough search of his luggage led to the discovery of the whitish powdery illicit substance factory packed in different parts of the bag.
“Preliminary investigation reveals that the suspect arrived in Lagos through Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on Saturday, August 19, came to Abuja on Tuesday, August 22, and took possession of the brown bag containing the drug consignment on Wednesday, August 23 before heading to the Abuja airport for his flight out of Nigeria,” Babafemi said.
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Meanwhile, NDLEA officers in Gombe State on patrol along Darazo Road on Monday, August 21, recovered an abandoned Volkswagen Sharon vehicle marked GME 76 XD containing a total of 373,420 pills of opioids including tramadol and diazepam.
In the same vein, operatives in Ogun State on August 23 raided the home of a drug dealer, Ifeanyi Orji, in the Ibafo area of the state where 81,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg weighing 32.4kgs were recovered.
In Adamawa State, NDLEA operatives on August 22 recovered 60,000 pills of tramadol from a suspect, Ibrahim Abba, 25, who was travelling in a commercial Toyota Starlet car from Kalaa village to Mubi.