NDLEA intercepts Cocaine consignments in Port-Harcourt, arrests traffickers

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have foiled desperate attempts by Brazilian based drug cartels to smuggle large consignments of Cocaine into Nigeria through three major International and  airports.

The states are Port-Harcourt Southern Nigeria, Abuja Central Nigeria, and Lagos Western Nigeria, where  seven traffickers were arrested.

The Director Media and Advocacy NDLEA headquarters Abuja Mr. Femi Babafemi disclosed this in a press statement.

The statement said: “At the Port-Harcourt International Airport, five suspects were arrested on Saturday 9th April. Three of them were arrested during the inward screening of passengers on board Qatar Airline flight QR1433 from Doha to Port-Harcourt. The three suspects departed Sao Paulo, Brazil on board the same Qatar flight, en-route Doha to Abuja and Port Harcourt with a total of 24.96 kilograms of cocaine.”

At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja, “a Psychology graduate of Imo State University, Owerri, Sebastine Emeka Kelvin, 30, was arrested with 74 pellets of cocaine weighing 1.454kg on arrival aboard Ethiopian Airline flight enroute Doula- Addis Ababa-Abuja on Wednesday 13th April.”

In Lagos, “another Brazil based passenger, Uba Samuel was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, by NDLEA operatives on Friday 15th April on arrival aboard Ethiopian Airline flight from Sao Paulo via Addis Ababa to Lagos with sachets of cocaine weighing 633 grams concealed in his footwear and toothpaste tube.”

Meanwhile, more illicit substances were recovered in raid operations in other parts of the country.

“In Gadaka village of Fika LGA, Yobe state, operatives arrested one Hassan Usman with a total of 22, 110 tablets of Tramadol, D5 and Exol 5, while one Ali Mohammed was nabbed in a commercial vehicle coming from Kano to Maiduguri with 40 blocks of cannabis weighing 33kg.”

Also arrested on the Kano-Maiduguri route was “a driver Ibrahim Khalil Idris with 60 packets of Tramadol, all on Tuesday 12th April.”

In Kogi state, “96750 blocks of Cannabis weighing 750kg were seized from two suspects: Hassan Adamu, 25, and Abdulmalik Abdullahi, 24, along Okene-Abuja highway. The drug exhibits were concealed inside fabricated panels of a Ford bus,” the statement said.

The Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (Rtd) has commended the officers and men of the PHIA, NAIA, MMIA, Yobe, and Kogi Commands of the Agency for disrupting desperate attempts by drug cartels to traffic dangerous drugs into Nigeria and across the country. 

He said that the huge seizures at the airports will send a strong message to drug barons that Nigeria will no longer be their safe destination or transit route.