Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted large consignments of illicit drugs, including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ephedrine at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.
Efforts by a cartel to export the illicit drugs to the UAE and Europe through various disingenuous modes of concealment were frustrated as the masterminds of the bids have been arrested.
Top on the list of those so far arrested in connection with the seizures is a Nigerian based in Athens, Greece, Iwuozor Edward Chinedu.
According to a statement by the spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, the suspect was debarked from an Ethiopian airline flight on Friday, February 3 after officers in the tarmac team of NDLEA intercepted “two suspicious-looking bags” during a secondary check exercise at the foot of the aircraft.
When the bags were searched in the presence of Mr Chinedu and other airport stakeholders, two big pellets wrapped with foil papers and some sprinkles of pepper were recovered from either side of one of the bags.
The pellets, he explained, were used to construct false walls at the sides of the bag while the two parcels contained substances that tested positive to cocaine and heroin with a gross weight of 1.30kgs and 900grams.
During preliminary interview, Mr Chinedu claimed he came to Nigeria three months ago to undergo a surgery, which he was not comfortable doing in Athens. He also claimed he was given the bag to deliver in Greece for a fee of N2 million.
Similarly, NDLEA operatives at the NAHCO export shed of the airport on Monday, January 30, arrested a pregnant woman, Onome Gloria Sylvester, after 800grams of skunk were discovered concealed in two small radio sets she was sending to Dubai, United Arab Emirate.
Giving a breakdown of seizures and arrests, the NDLEA spokesman, Mr Babafemi said on the same day, operatives also intercepted a consignment headed to the Democratic Republic of Congo, containing 111 bottles of body cream that were used to conceal 24.50kgs of ephedrine – a chemical precursor and active ingredient for producing methamphetamine.
The cargo was later traced to a trader at Alaba trade fair complex, Ojo area of Lagos, a certain Onyekachukwu Uduekwelu, after the initial arrest of two freight agents.
In the same vein, operatives at the SAHCO export shed of the airport on Thursday, January 26, intercepted a sack of new clothes bound for Sierra Leone.
During a thorough search of the consignment, a parcel of white crystalline substance that tested positive to methamphetamine with a gross weight of 1kg, as well as 300grams of skunk and 100grams ecstasy (MDMA) were recovered.
Writing by Nosa Aituamen; Editing by Chinasa Ossai and Tony Okerafor