How Brazil Returnees Excreted 116 Wraps of Heroin, NDLEA Explains

A Sunday statement signed by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, revealed that the suspects, Ofoma Sunday and Ukachukwu Frank Ikechukwu, were placed under observation after a body scan, where they subsequently excreted a total of 116 wraps of heroin and cocaine they ingested after days in observatory custody following their arrest upon their arrival at the airport.

According to the statement, one of the suspects, a 46-year-old Ofoma, was arrested on Tuesday, 16^th September 2025, at Terminal 2 of the Lagos airport upon his arrival from Laos, Brazil, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

After his arrest, Ofoma who had left Nigeria for Brazil on September 3 to courier the consignment to Lagos for a reward of $2,500 upon successful delivery, was he subsequently taken for body scan which confirmed ingestion of illicit drugs.

Following his arrest, a swift follow-up operation was conducted at Eliata Hotel in Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos, where Ofoma was instructed to meet Nweke Jude Chuckwudi, who was designated to oversee the excretion of the drugs at the hotel and recover them.

The 55-year-old Nweke was arrested in the process and a total of 111 wraps of heroin weighing 1.452 kilograms were egested in eight excretions by Ofoma.

In another similar operation, another Brazilian returnee, Ukachukwu Frank Ikechukwu, was arrested at the MMIA during the inward clearance of Ethiopian Airlines passengers from Brazil via Addis Ababa on Friday.

He was taken for a body scan, which confirmed illicit drug insertion, and was immediately under close observation, where he excreted five big wraps of cocaine weighing 145 grams.

According to the statement, Ikechukwu admitted during interrogation that he bought the consignment in Brazil and inserted it into his anus.

The statement reads, “Similarly, another Brazilian returnee Ukachukwu Frank Ikechukwu, was arrested at the Lagos airport during the inward clearance of Ethiopian Airlines passengers from Brazil via Addis Ababa on Friday, 19^th September. He was taken for a body scan, which confirmed illicit drug insertion. Under excretion observation, Ukachukwu expelled five big wraps of cocaine weighing 145 grams.

“In his statement, he confessed to have bought nine wraps of the class A drug in Brazil and inserted all into his anus, a process he claimed took him nearly two hours. During his transit through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he said he began to experience severe anal pain and decided to remove the wraps from his body. He stated that in an attempt to meet up with his connecting flight to Nigeria, he could only manage to reinsert seven wraps, after which he flushed the remaining two wraps in a toilet.

“The suspect revealed that while on board his flight to Nigeria, he felt pressured and uncomfortable, which compelled him to use the lavatory. During the process, he expelled an additional two wraps, leaving him with only five wraps in his anus. He claimed to have been into clothing business before travelling to Brazil in 2017. In 2020, he moved to the United States, where he was arrested for an immigration offence and was detained for over a year before being deported to Nigeria in 2022.

“In March 2025, he returned to Brazil, where he currently works, having already obtained a Brazilian residence permit.”

TVC previously reported that the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have arrested three members of an international organised criminal group operating between Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia and the United Arab Emirates in connection with a N5.3 billion worth of cocaine confined in textile materials bound for Sydney, Australia at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos State.