Operatives from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) apprehended a 67-year-old individual named Chukwuemeka Clement at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) in Abuja.
Clement had ingested 100 wraps of cocaine, which he claimed was part of a criminal enterprise he entered into to gather sufficient funds for a fresh start after spending three decades of his life in Brazil, Ethiopia, and Thailand.
Chukwuemeka’s arrest occurred on the 3rd of October when he was undergoing customs clearance upon arriving on Ethiopian Airlines flight 951 from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
During a body scan, authorities discovered multiple drug-filled pellets in his stomach. While under close observation, he excreted a total of 100 cocaine wraps, amounting to 2.195 kilograms, in four separate instances.
In his statement, Chukwuemeka revealed that he had spent 30 years residing in Brazil, Ethiopia, and Thailand. He disclosed that although he had been married previously, he had lost his wife and did not have any children. This tragic situation led him to resort to drug trafficking as a means to amass the necessary resources to wed a new spouse and embark on a fresh chapter in his life.
On the same day, Tuesday 3rd October, NDLEA operatives at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano, intercepted a 45-year-old woman, Bilkisu Mohammed Bello while preparing to board a Saudia Airlines flight to Saudi Arabia.
While being interviewed, she confessed that pellets of cocaine given to her to swallow before her flight were kept in a house in Farawa area of Kano. When she led NDLEA officers to the house, 52 wraps of the illicit substance with a total weight of 767grams were recovered.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives supported by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, Civil Defence Corps and Amotekun personnel on Tuesday 3rd October stormed James town, in Ogunmakin, Obafemi Owode local government area of Ogun state where they located and destroyed 10.38 tonnes of cannabis sativa covering over 4.152 hectares.
While on their way back from the operation, the team also intercepted a truck marked FS548XN carrying a 40ft container loaded with logs of wood. A search of the container led to the recovery of two bags of cannabis sativa weighing 20kgs while six suspects: Ahmed Yusuf, Olaniyi Babatunde, Adedeji Babatunde, Richard John, Osolale Olamilekan and Abdulazeez Saied, in the truck were arrested.
In the same vein, operatives on Sunday 1st October raided Obi camp in Owan West LGA, Edo state where 30 sacks of skunk weighing 300kgs and concealed in charcoal were evacuated from an old dilapidated mud house. Similarly, two cannabis farms measuring 1.179065 hectares at Igbanke forest in Orhiowon local government area of the state were identified and destroyed on Friday 6th October while four suspects: Tersoo Zaria, 28; Ifeanyi Osai, 53; Moses David, 19, and Daniel Gabriel, 20, were arrested.
