NDLEA nabs India-bound bizman with 9.40kg heroin in Lagos

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a businessman, Kingsley Celestino, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, with 9.40kg of heroin concealed in false bottoms of his two travelling bags.

The 49-year-old Kingsley, a native of Nnewi South LGA of Anambra State, on a Qatar Airways flight, was arrested on Saturday, March 4, on his way to India with a Guinean passport.

Spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this on Sunday, saying, “He claimed he deals in clothing business between Nigeria and India. It was further established that he obtained the Guinean international passport in Guinea Bissau, where he said his mother came from.”

Also, a 24-year-old passenger travelling to Oman, Etounu Monday, was intercepted at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, on Monday, February 27, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight while attempting to export 1.924kg of Indian hemp concealed in cream tubes.

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In the same vein, at the Tin Can Seaport, Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Friday, March  3, recovered 244 parcels of hemp weighing 79kg concealed in wooden sound system speakers packed inside two out of four used vehicles in a container marked coming from Toronto, Canada.

Similarly, NDLEA officers intercepted nine parcels of methamphetamine concealed in native black soap, Dudu Osun, heading to Europe.

Equally, no fewer than 778,190 pills of pharmaceutical opioids, including tramadol, and a drum of 270kg methylene chloride were recovered by operatives from one Eric Pepe Yohanna (33) in Jalingo, Taraba State, on Monday, February  27.

In Adamawa State, the house of a wanted drug dealer, Mamudu Njobdi, on Gyalla Road in Mubi LGA, was raided in the early hours of Monday, February 27, where he was arrested and drug exhibits recovered.

While Geoffrey Okpani (31) was arrested at the Bukuru area of Jos, Plateau State, with 27.45kg of hemp, Ajayi Tope (30) was arrested on Saturday, March 4, at Area 5, Ile-Ife, Ife South LGA of Osun State with 18kg of the same substance.