The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 44-year-old businessman, Ezemokwe Chukwuebuka Christian, at Port Harcourt International Airport for ingesting 53 wraps of cocaine.
Ezemokwe was boarding a Qatar Airways flight to Tehran in Iran on 7 June when a body scan raised suspicion. He was placed under observation and subsequently excreted a total of 53 cocaine pellets weighing 1.17kg in six separate sessions. The suspect said he entered the drug trade two years ago and frequently travelled between West Africa and Iran.
The arrest came nearly two weeks after another trader, Chinedu Leonard Okigbo, 60, was apprehended at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano with 65 pellets of cocaine in his stomach.
In a separate incident at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, NDLEA officers, in collaboration with FAAN Aviation Security, intercepted Edobor Ambrose Ali with 14,410 pills of tramadol concealed in his luggage.
The suspect, a Milan-based Nigerian, said he was hired to convey the drugs from Lagos to Italy for a fee of €2,000.
At Port Harcourt Ports in Rivers state, NDLEA and customs officers recovered 157,800 bottles of codeine-based syrup valued at over N1.1 billion, hidden behind cartons of sanitary wares.
Meanwhile, in Cross River state, NDLEA operatives raided a warehouse in Obereakai and recovered 2,687kg of skunk. They also intercepted 287kg of skunk in a Toyota Camry on the Bauchi-Jos road. Furthermore, 14 jumbo sacks weighing 560kg were recovered from a wooden boat at Oniru Beach in Lagos.
At Maiduguri airport, two suspects — 30-year-old Ishaku Abdullahi and 32-year-old Buba Usman — were arrested for possession of ecstasy pills and skunk.
Across the country, NDLEA’s War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign continued with lectures at Command Secondary School in Orba, Enugu; Divine Gift International School in Ebonyi; Baptist Primary School in Oyo; and St. Vincent Secondary School in Akwa Ibom.
Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), chairman of NDLEA, commended his officers for their diligence and reiterated the agency’s resolve to pursue a balance between reducing drug supply and demand.
