The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has announced the arrest of two businessmen: Ihejirika Okechukwu Emmanuel and Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory, as well as a Canada-based nurse, Usman Grace Khadijat Olami at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos for attempting to import and export cocaine pellets and parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis through the airport.
NDLEA disclosed that Ihejirika was arrested on Tuesday 15th October 2024 while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Thailand via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
This was made known by Femi Babafemi Director, Media & Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, on Sunday.
According to the statement, the result from the body scan of the suspect showed he ingested an illicit drug which proved to be cocaine, adding that he was placed under excretion observation during which he expelled five big egg-sized wraps of cocaine weighing 400 grams.
NDLEA further alleged that the 51-year-old suspect confessed that he was to be paid upon successful delivery of the drug consignment in Thailand, explaining that he needed the money to boost his fish importation business.
In the same vein, NDLEA said its operatives at the Lagos airport on Thursday intercepted a 26-year-old businessman Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory coming from Brazil via Addis Ababa during the inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
Babafemi in the statement disclosed that the suspect’s body scan revealed ingestion of illicit drugs and that he excreted a pellet of cocaine weighing 22 grams when he was put under observation.
The anti-narcotic agency said the suspect confessed that he ingested 30 wraps of the illicit drug in Brazil but excreted 29 pellets in Addis Ababa, where he handed them over to another person, revealing that he was to be paid N2.5 million for trafficking the drug.
Meanwhile, a Nigerian Canadian nurse Usman Grace Khadijat Olami was on 4th October, arrested by NDLEA officers at the Lagos airport during the inward clearance of Air France passengers from Toronto, Canada via Paris. During a search of her luggage, a total of 70 parcels of Canadian Loud, weighing 35.70kg were recovered from her.
During her interview, she claimed she was in Nigeria to meet her boyfriend who instructed her to come with the large consignment of the highly sought-after synthetic cannabis.
At the seaports, while a total of 162,351 bottles of codeine-based syrup were intercepted from two containers at the Apapa seaport in Lagos by NDLEA operatives during a joint examination of two containers with men of the Customs Service and other security agencies on Tuesday 15th October, not less than Seven Million Two Hundred Thousand (7,200,000) pills of Royal 225mg Tapentadol and Carisoprodol worth Three Billion Six Hundred Million Naira (N3,600,000,000) in street value were seized from a watch-listed container from India at Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers state on Tuesday 15th October.
In the same container, 780 cartons of chlorphenamine containing Fifteen Million Six Hundred Thousand (15,600,000) pills of the opioid, were also recovered.
From two other watch-listed containers equally searched at the port in Onne, a total of 337,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup worth Two Billion Three Hundred and Fifty-Nine Million Naira (N2,359,000,000) were recovered from them on Tuesday 15th and Thursday 17th October. This brings the total value of the seized Tapentadol, Carisoprodol and Codeine consignments at the two seaports to Seven Billion Ninety-Five Million Four Hundred and Fifty-Seven Thousand Naira (N7,095,457,000).
In Bauchi State, a suspect Sunday Jonathan Ogenyi, 33, was arrested along Bauchi-Jos road with 76,600 pills of tramadol concealed in false compartments of his Toyota Sienna vehicle marked Enugu JRV 341 ZY, while NDLEA operatives in Ondo state on Tuesday 15th October arrested three suspects: Goddey Obizuo; Samuel Aniete; and Kuffrey Aniete at Afo village where 672kg cannabis sativa was seized from them.
A raid at Illushi forest in Esan South East LGA, Edo State led to the destruction of 10,590.36kg cannabis spread on 4.236144 hectares of farmland. Suspects arrested during the operation include Benson Upuoni, 65; and Sunday Nwaeboyi, 35.
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday, 15th October arrested Andrew Joseph Anoriode with 3kg methamphetamine and 1.90kg cannabis along the Lagos – Ibadan expressway while 241kg of the same substance was recovered at Gbaji, Badagry area of the state.
A suspected meth cook, Agbeiboh Oscar, was nabbed the same Tuesday at Abule Osun with 265 grams of methamphetamine and different quantities of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of methamphetamine and others.
Reacting to the development, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Mohamed Buba Marwa commended the officers and men of MMIA, PHPC, Apapa, Lagos, Bauchi, Ondo, and Edo Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures.
Marwa stated that their operational successes and those of their compatriots across the country, especially their balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts are well appreciated.
