Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, have arrested two Nigerians travelling to Paris, France, for allegedly ingesting 200 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.46 kilogrammes.
The suspects, identified as Aliocus Godian Odife and Sam Blackborn, were intercepted on Wednesday, October 28, during the outward clearance of Air France flight AF 832 from Abuja to Paris.
The NDLEA said in a statement issued on Sunday by its Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, that the suspects subsequently excreted all the cocaine wraps while under observation by agency operatives.
According to the statement, Odife, who claimed to live in France and work in a factory, arrived in Nigeria on October 21 for a short holiday.
He was arrested while attempting to return to France after a body scan revealed foreign objects in his stomach.
The agency said he admitted ingesting 110 pellets of cocaine and subsequently excreted all of them. The wraps tested positive for cocaine and weighed 1.901 kilogrammes.
His co-traveller, Blackborn, was also arrested after a body scan indicated that he had ingested drugs.
He admitted swallowing 90 pellets of cocaine and later excreted all of them under observation. The wraps tested positive for cocaine and weighed 1.559 kilogrammes.
The NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), described the interception as a warning to drug traffickers who believe that living abroad would shield them from detection while trafficking illicit substances across Nigerian borders.
Marwa, according to the statement, said officers at the country’s entry and exit points remained vigilant. He warned against the dangers of ingesting illicit drugs for financial gain.
Other seizures
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives recovered 976 kilogrammes of skunk, a potent strain of cannabis, in two separate operations on Sunday, October 25.
The agency said 537 kilogrammes of the substance were recovered from a white Volkswagen LT 28 bus intercepted along Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja, while another 439 kilogrammes were seized from a brown J5 bus along the Gbagada-Oshodi Expressway.
In Oyo State, two suspects, Oguntona Nasiru, 46, and Soji Balogun, 47, were arrested on Thursday, October 29, while allegedly loading 554 kilogrammes of skunk into a Volvo truck along Idere Road, Igboora.
The operation targeted a suspected drug dealer identified as ‘Omo Oba’, who escaped arrest on October 25 when NDLEA operatives seized 309.5 kilogrammes of cannabis, known as Ghanaian Loud, allegedly linked to him.
In Kano State, operatives raided a location in the Tsamiya area of Gezawa on Monday, October 26, recovering 247,500 tablets of diazepam weighing 57.7 kilogrammes and 100,000 tablets of Exol-5 weighing 38.7 kilogrammes.
Two days later, officers arrested Ziya’ulhaq Abdullahi, 35, and Garba Muhammed, 52, in the Dorayi area with 19,250 pills of tramadol 225mg weighing 13.6 kilogrammes.
The agency also reported the arrest of a woman, Aisha Isah, with 266 rounds of live AK-47 ammunition at a tollgate along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway.
On the Zaria-Kano Expressway, a 68-year-old man, Ifeanyi Egwolonwu, was arrested at Gwargwaje, Zaria, with 2,770 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 100 ampoules of diazepam injection, 11,000 tablets of diazepam and 4,500 tablets of Exol-5.
In another operation at Tashan Banke, officers arrested seven suspects, including Faisal Adamu, and recovered 178.85 kilogrammes of cannabis alongside quantities of diazepam, tramadol, Exol-5 and pregabalin.
In Ondo State, four suspects were arrested during a raid on cannabis farms in Ijare Forest on Sunday, October 25. The suspects included Bassey Okon, 24; Abraham Edet, 20; and Oto Udo, 24. Officers recovered 16 bags of processed cannabis weighing 180 kilogrammes.
In Edo State, NDLEA operatives, supported by soldiers, raided Eko Camp in Ilushi, Esan South-East Local Government Area, on Wednesday, October 28. They destroyed a cannabis plantation measuring 1.646 hectares, with an estimated yield of 4,115.53 kilogrammes.
Marwa commended officers and men of the NDLEA commands at the Abuja airport, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Ondo, Oyo and Edo for the arrests and seizures.
He urged them to sustain operations against drug trafficking organisations while intensifying efforts to reduce drug demand through the agency’s War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation programme.