Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have arrested a 40-year-old businessman, Sherif Egbo, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja while attempting to board an Air France flight to Paris, France.
This arrest was made after anti-narcotics agents detected that he had ingested illicit drugs during a body scan.
Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA spokesperson, disclosed that Sherif Egbo, based in Madrid, Spain, was apprehended on October 14. A body scanner revealed that he had ingested wraps of illicit drugs in his stomach, leading to his arrest.
Babafemi said, “He was subsequently placed under observation at the agency’s exhibit recovery room where he excreted 93 pellets of heroin weighing 2.222 kilogrammes. In his statement, the suspect claimed he works at a chicken hatchery farm in Madrid, Spain, and also in the drug trafficking business.”
In addition, the NDLEA’s weekly communique reported that on October 16, at the NAHCO imports shed off the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, NDLEA operatives seized a consignment containing ten cartons, which held 500,000 pills of tramadol 225mg, branded as tapentadol.
This cargo, shipped from India through Qatar Airways, was supposed to be a transit cargo to Monrovia, Liberia. However, collaboration and real-time intelligence sharing between NDLEA and its Liberian counterpart revealed the true nature of the shipment.
Furthermore, another passenger, Ngene Chinecherem, attempted to export 11.100 kilograms of skunk and 600 grams of tramadol, concealed in foodstuffs, through the Lagos airport on Qatar Airways but was thwarted by NDLEA officers. Chinecherem was arrested, and the illicit substances were seized.
In another operation, NDLEA officers attached to courier companies intercepted 1 kilogram of methamphetamine concealed in containers of body cream intended for New Zealand. They also discovered a consignment of 2.5 kilograms of cocaine and phenacetin hidden in the walls of a carton destined for Saudi Arabia.
In another operation, 112 grams of Dimethyl Sulfone and 583 grams of cocaine and phenacetin were seized in Lagos.
In Imo State, operatives recovered 168 bags of skunk, weighing 1,854 kilograms, from an abandoned Mercedes Benz container truck. Additionally, in Edo State, multiple interdiction operations led to the seizure of 1,381.3 kilograms of the same substance in various locations.
Three individuals were arrested in Kano State, and 106 kilograms of cannabis were seized. One of the suspects, Aminu Suleiman, had previously been arrested with 22 kilograms of cannabis, convicted, and then re-arrested. In Kano, four other suspects were arrested for dealing 75.3 kilograms of skunk.
Operatives of the Zone J Command of the NDLEA seized 478 kilograms of cannabis in Ikere Ekiti, while the Ondo State Command recovered 928 kilograms of the same substance in different locations.
Lastly, in Borno State, a suspect named Sani Mohammed was arrested with 182 kilograms of cannabis at Njimtilo, along the Maiduguri-Damaturu road on October 21.
Credit: Facebook | NDLEA
