By Ibironke Ariyo
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said it has detained a newlywed businessman at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA), Enugu, for attempting to traffic 72 wraps of ingested cocaine.
The suspect (name withheld) was travelling to Portugal, where he resides.
A statement by the Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, yesterday in Abuja, said the 25-year-old groom was intercepted by the NDLEA operatives at the departure hall of the Enugu airport on September 25, with cocaine in his gut and wedding ring on his finger.
Babafemi said the suspect attempted to board an Ethiopian Airline flight to Portugal via Addis Ababa.
He said the suspect was placed under excretion observation, and egested 72 wraps of cocaine.
The spokesman said preliminary investigation showed that the suspect was into car decoration business in the Ojo area of Lagos before relocating to Portugal in May 2023.
“The suspect returned to Nigeria recently, and married on September 13. He resorted to the criminal trade to offset expenses incurred during his wedding,” he said.
Babafemi said on September 22, the agency uncovered one of the biggest opioid hauls at the import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
He said the operatives during a joint examination of three monitored consignments seized 2,550,000 pills of Tramaking 225mg, Tramaking 250mg, and Royal Tapentadol 250mg, with a combined gross weight of 1,640.55 kilograms.
The spokesman said the consignments were imported from India and Bangladesh via Qatar Airways, RwandAir, and Ethiopian Airlines.
In Bauchi State, Babafemi said the NDLEA operatives arrested two suspects along the Maiduguri Bypass with 300 compressed blocks of skunk, a strain of cannabis weighing 262.5kg, concealed in the false bottom of a truck marked MUB 757 YH.
He said on September 23, the NDLEA operatives supported by soldiers destroyed two cannabis farms with a combined estimated yield of 1,360.23kg at Eko Camp, Ilushi in Edo State.
Babafemi added that the operatives on September 26, detained two female suspects during a raid at Anifowoshe Street in Mushin Lagos, and recovered 3.4kg skunk from them.
Also, Babafemi said the operatives intercepted a 58-year-old man on September 26, at Ebute-Ero Motor Park in Lagos, with large quantities of illicit consignments.
He said the seized drugs included 5.920kg skunk; 2,400 ampoules of pentazocine injection; 8,400 tablets of nitrazepam; and 40,000 pills of tramadol.
Similarly, two Togolese were nabbed by the NDLEA officers on September 26, at Iganna – Ilero Road, Iganna, Oyo State, with 305.6kg of skunk.
Babafemi said the illicit substances were concealed in two pick-up vans used for a cross-border trafficking racket, moving Ghanaian-sourced cannabis into Nigeria through the Oyo axis.
Additionally, at the Seme border in Badagry, Lagos, five suspects were arrested with 420 cartons of nitrous oxide popularly called “laughing gas” weighing 1,688.4kg, along with two vehicles used in conveying the substances from the border into Lagos.
According to Babafemi, the NDLEA commands and formations are continuing with the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities to schools, worship centres, work places and communities across the country.
Babafemi quoted the NDLEA Chairman, Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd) as commending officers and men of the MMIA, AIIA, Lagos, Oyo, Edo, Seme, and Bauchi Commands for the successful operations.
Marwa enjoined the officers across the country to continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the drug control efforts of the agency. (NAN)
