Operatives of Nigeria’s Anti-narcotic Agency, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA, have arrested a 40-year-old Madrid, Spain-based ‘businessman’, Sherif Egbo Ally at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja while attempting to board an Air France flight to Paris, France after they discovered he ingested illicit drugs.
According to the agency’s spokesperson Mr Femi BabaFemi in a press statement,
Egbo was arrested on Saturday 14th October after a body scanner revealed he had wraps of illicit drugs in his stomach.
He was subsequently placed under observation at the Agency’s exhibit recovery room where he excreted 93 pellets of heroin weighing 2.222 kilograms.
“In his statement, the suspect claimed he works at a chicken hatchery farm in Madrid, Spain and also into drug trafficking business.”
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives at the NAHCO imports shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos on Monday 16th October seized a consignment of 10 cartons containing 500,000 pills of tramadol 225mg branded as tapentadol.
The cargo, which was shipped from India through Qatar Airways with airwaybill number MAWB 319-01227236 was purported to be a transit cargo to Monrovia, Liberia.
“The lid was blown open through partnership and real-time intelligence sharing mechanisms between NDLEA and its Liberian counterpart.”
Also, attempt by an intending passenger to Muscat, Oman on Qatar Airways, Ngene Chinecherem Oscar to export 11.100kgs of skunk and 600grams of tramadol concealed in foodstuffs through the Lagos airport was thwarted by NDLEA officers who arrested him and seized the illicit substances.
BabaFemi said in another operation, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations, DOGI, attached to courier companies on Sunday 15th October intercepted 1kg methamphetamine concealed in containers of body cream going to New Zealand as well as another consignment of 2.5kgs cocaine and phenacetin hidden in walls of a carton heading to Saudi Arabia.
“Two more seizures, 112 grams of Dimethyl Sulfone and 583 grams of Cocaine and phenacetin were made at another courier company in Lagos on Wednesday 18th October. While the Dimethyl Sulfone was concealed in the hollow of a motor driving shaft going to New Zealand, the consignment of Cocaine and phenacetin was packed into a bottle of body cream heading to Saudi Arabia.”
The NDLEA’s spokesperson noted that similar arrests and seizures were made in Imo, Ondo, Kano, and Edo, states.
Commending the arrests and seizures of the past week by officers and men of the affected commands, the Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, retired Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa charged them and their compatriots across all formations of the Agency to continue to remain vigilant and double their efforts, especially with the desperation of criminal networks to make money by all means towards the end of the year season.
Meanwhile, commands across the 36 states and the FCT equally continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitisation lectures in schools, communities, and workplaces among others.
Dominica Nwabufo
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