The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) yesterday said an Onitsha, Anambra State-based businessman, Ibeanusi Solomon Nosike, excreted 68 wraps of cocaine after 12 days of observation.
Spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, said this followed Nosike’s arrest at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos by operatives of the NDLEA.
According to the statement, the 36-year-old Nosike was arrested in the early hours of 8 August at the old Domestic Terminal of the airport while boarding the first flight out of Lagos to Abuja.
The suspect was scheduled to join a Qatar Airways flight to Vietnam at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja about 10 am the same day, the statement indicated.
Babafemi said the suspect, who came under NDLEA surveillance following intelligence, had arrived Lagos from his base the previous day and lodged in a hotel where he swallowed the 68 wraps before heading to the airport for a 6:30 am flight.
He was thereafter intercepted by NDLEA operatives who moved him into observation where he spent the next 12 days excreting the cocaine pellets weighing 1.282 kilogrammes, Babafemi said.
The statement reads: “Another Vietnam-bound businessman, 54-year-old Paul Okwuy Mbadugha had been arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Abuja airport on Monday, 12th August 2024 during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam via Doha after he tested positive to ingestion of cocaine.
“After four days under observation, Mbadugha egested a total of 88 wraps of the illicit drug with a gross weight of 1.710 kilogrammes.
“In the same vein, another Onitsha-based businessman, Aligbo Chukwudi Jacob, has been arrested by NDLEA operatives following the seizure of a consignment of 1.20kg cannabis concealed in a package going to Dubai, UAE.
“Operatives at the MMIA Strategic Command of the agency had intercepted the shipment at the export shed of the Lagos airport while investigations revealed the cargo was sent through a courier company in Onitsha. After a series of follow up operations, Aligbo was eventually arrested in Onitsha on Saturday, 17th August.
“Meanwhile, operatives of a Special Operations Unit in NDLEA have arrested five cross-border female drug traffickers at the Seme border while on their way back to Lagos from Ghana.
“Leader of the syndicate, 42-year-old Olaribigbe Bashirat Feyisara, has been under NDLEA radar before being tracked and arrested on Wednesday 21st August along with other members of her gang: Abogun Fatimah Ladidi, Osibeluwo Tolulope Oluwaseun, Akanni Balikis Oluwatoyin and Ajetumobi Amudalat.
At the point of their arrest at the Seme border, a total of 14 packs of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis, weighing a total of 6.97kg, were recovered from hidden parts of their bodies.
“Similarly, NDLEA operatives at the Tin Can seaport in Lagos on Friday, 23rd August intercepted two containers which came from Mundra port in India. No fewer than 1,596 cartons of codeine-based syrup containing 319, 200 bottles of the opioid worth N2,234,400,000 were recovered from the containers during an examination with other port stakeholders.
“Two ladies were arrested by operatives in Edo State for online sales of illicit drugs”.
