Brazil returnee excretes 60 wraps of cocaine in custody
• NDLEA seizes 599,900 tramadol pills from Pakistan, declares ex- beauty queen wanted
OPERATIVES of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency ( NDLEA) have arrested a Brazil returnee, Udechukwu Ekene Theophilus, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport ( MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, for ingesting 60 wraps of cocaine.
The suspect, who was arrested during inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the D- Arrival Hall of the Lagos airport on Sunday, January 21, initially refused to undergo body scan, raising health concerns, in a bid to evade arrest.
Confirming the development, spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, said when the suspect was, however, offered other options, he accepted to be placed on ‘ excretion observation’. Shortly after he was ushered into NDLEA’S observatory, he excreted the first set of cocaine pellets. Altogether, he expelled 60 wraps of the class- A drug weighing 1.279kg in five excretions.
In his statement, Theophilus claimed he ingested the consignment in Brazil and was to discharge everything at the airport in Addis Ababa, but could only excrete 15 pellets, which he handed over to another member of his syndicate before his connecting flight to Nigeria was called.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Tuesday, January 23, recovered 12 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing 599,900 pills, weighing 385.40kg, from an overstayed cargo at the Skyway Aviation Handling Company ( SAHCO) import shed of the Lagos airport, after a joint examination with other agencies.
The tramadol consignment had come into the country in two batches on KLM Royal Dutch Airline flights from Karachi, Pakistan, between July 27 and August 1, 2023. They were, however, placed under watch by NDLEA operatives.
Also, about 822kg of cannabis sativa hidden in a fuel station located at Ashipa community, along Badagry- Seme road, were recovered by operatives of the Seme Special Area Command of NDLEA, while a suspect Sani Audu, 35, was arrested with 111.3kg of the same substance at Maigatari town in Jigawa State, on Tuesday, January 23.
In Yobe State, two suspects: Mohammed Usman and Adamu Ma’azu were arrested on Saturday, January 27, with 49 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 50kg at Damaturu motor park, Damaturu.
Also, the duo of Paul Obor, 38, and Dennis Fuokorighe, 48, arrested on Wednesday, January 24, at a Navy check point in Itobe, Ofu Local Council, Kogi State were, on Friday, January 26, handed over to the Kogi State command of the agency by men of the Nigeria Navy Ship, Lugard, Lokoja.