International Drug Bust: ‘Businessman’ excretes 93 heroin wraps at Abuja airport
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) apprehended a 40-year-old ‘businessman,’ Sherif Egbo, at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
Egbo, who resides in Spain, was attempting to board an Air France flight to Paris, France when anti-narcotics agents discovered that he had ingested illicit drugs.
The NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, reported that Egbo’s arrest occurred on Saturday, October 14, after a body scanner revealed wraps of illicit drugs concealed in his stomach.
Under observation at the agency’s exhibit recovery room, Egbo excreted 93 pellets of heroin, weighing 2.222 kilograms.
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In his statement, Egbo claimed to work at a chicken hatchery farm in Madrid, Spain, and admitted involvement in the drug trafficking business.
In another operation, NDLEA operatives at the NAHCO imports shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, seized a shipment of 10 cartons containing 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. The interception resulted from real-time intelligence sharing between NDLEA and its Liberian counterpart.
An additional thwarted attempt involved an intending passenger, Ngene Chinecherem, who was trying to export 11.100 kilograms of skunk and 600 grams of tramadol concealed in foodstuffs through Lagos airport. NDLEA officers arrested him and seized the illicit substances.
In a separate operation, NDLEA officers attached to courier companies intercepted 1 kilogram of methamphetamine concealed in containers of body cream bound for New Zealand, along with 2.5 kilograms of cocaine and phenacetin hidden in the walls of a carton destined for Saudi Arabia.
Two more seizures involved 112 grams of Dimethyl Sulfone and 583 grams of Cocaine and phenacetin, intercepted at another courier company in Lagos.
In Imo State, operatives recovered 168 bags of skunk, weighing 1,854 kilograms from an abandoned Mercedes Benz container truck parked in an isolated area along the Owerri-Onitsha expressway.
The week-long report also revealed that less than 1,381.3 kilograms of the same substance were seized in four interdiction operations in parts of Edo state, including Ekpon community, Igueben LGA; Iguiye forest in Ovia North East LGA; Iruekpen, Ndokwa West where a suspect, Monday Nwocha, was arrested; and in Egwalor village in Onwude LGA, where Obune Prince and Chika Obi were arrested, and their Audi 80 salon car, marked BEN 406 CL, loaded with cannabis sativa was recovered.
In Kano State, an ex-convict, Aminu Suleiman, 46, was arrested along with Haruna Abdurrahaman, 41, and Ojo Esezobor, 34, at Gadar Tamburawa area on Saturday, October 14, while 106 kilograms of cannabis were recovered from them. Aminu was previously arrested with 22 kilograms of cannabis on June 3, 2022, and was convicted by the court on November 24, 2022.
Four more suspects, Inusa Ali, Yahaya Musa, Abba Audu, Ali Abubakar, and Bunu Kyari, were arrested at Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano on Monday, October 16, for dealing in 75.3 kilograms of skunk.
In other regions, the Zone J Command of the NDLEA seized 478 kilograms of cannabis in a forest in Ikere Ekiti on Friday, October 20. Simultaneously, operatives of the Ondo state command recovered a total of 928 kilograms of the same substance in a bush near Shagari market, along the Ifon-Owo express road, and Ibola camp in Ipele forest.
Lastly, in Borno State, a suspect, Sani Mohammed, 31, was arrested on Saturday, October 21, with 182 kilograms of cannabis at Njimtilo, along the Maiduguri-Damaturu road.