Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the NAHCO export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, (MMIA) Ikeja, Lagos, arrested a pregnant woman, Mrs Sylvester Gloria Onome, on Monday, January 30, 2023, for being in possession of illicit drugs.
Spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, said on Sunday in Abuja that the suspected pregnant woman was arrested after 800 grams of skunk was discovered concealed in two small radio sets she was sending to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
On the same day, the NDLEA also intercepted a consignment going to Congo, Kinshasa, containing 111 bottles of body cream that were used to conceal 24.50kgs of ephedrine, a chemical precursor and active ingredient used to produce methamphetamine.
“The cargo was later traced to a trader at Alaba trade fair complex, Ojo area of Lagos, Onyekachukwu Uduekwelu, after the initial arrest of two freight agents,” Babafemi said.
On Friday, January 27, another housewife, Mrs Okpara Chizoba Victoria, was arrested at her residence at 37, Obashola street, in the Ijesha area of Lagos State, following the seizure of 300grams of skunk hidden in a bag of crayfish she was sending to Dubai, UAE through a freight agent.
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Also attempts to export large consignments of illicit drugs, especially cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ephedrine to Dubai, UAE and Europe through various disingenuous modes of concealment by desperate drug cartels via the MMIA Ikeja Lagos were frustrated by NDLEA operatives, who intercepted them and arrested those behind the bids.
Top on the list of those so far arrested in connection with the seizures is a Nigerian based in Athens, Greece, Iwuozor Edward Chinedu.
He was debarked from an Ethiopian airline flight on Friday, February 3, after officers in the tarmac team of NDLEA intercepted two bags during a secondary check exercise at the foot of the aircraft.
When the bags were searched in the presence of Chinedu and other airport stakeholders, two big pellets wrapped with foil papers and some sprinkles of pepper were recovered from each of the two sides of one of the bags.
The pellets were used to construct false walls at the sides of the bag and they contained substances that tested positive to cocaine and heroin with a gross weight of 1.30kgs and 900grams, respectively.
“During a preliminary interview, Chinedu claimed he came to Nigeria three months ago to do surgery, which he was not comfortable doing in Athens. He further claimed he was given the bag to deliver in Greece for a fee of N2m,” Babafemi said.
In the same vein, operatives at the SAHCO export shed of the airport on January 26, intercepted a sack of new clothes going to Sierra Leone. During a search of the consignment, a parcel of white crystalline substance that tested positive to methamphetamine with a gross weight of 1kg, as well as 300 grams of skunk and 100 grams of ecstasy (MDMA), were recovered.
A freight agent, Mfonabasi Victor Joseph was arrested in connection with the seizure.
Also, no fewer than 255,500 pills of tramadol and diazepam were recovered from an Italy-based suspect, Duru Josephat, who concealed the drugs in two of the bags he was travelling with to Milan, Italy on an Ethiopian airline flight.
He confessed that he bought the drugs in Onitsha, Anambra State and was taking them to Italy to sell.
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