NDLEA nabs 56- year- old Saudi- bound widow with cocaine in footwear
• Intercepts 5.6kg cocaine, meth heading to Australia, Cyprus at courier firms; others
OPERATIVES of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency ( NDLEA) have arrested a 56- year- old widow and mother of four, Mrs. Ajisegiri Kehinde Sidika, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport ( MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos for attempting to traffic 400grammes of cocaine concealed in her footwear to Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
The suspect, who claims to be a businesswoman trading in adult and children’s wear on Lagos Island was intercepted on Sunday, November 13, while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight going to Saudi Arabia via Doha.
Upon a critical examination of the pair of sandals she was wearing, two parcels of cocaine weighing 400grammes were recovered from them.
In the same vein, attempts by a tricycle parts seller, Ayoade Kehinde Tayo to send 1kg of tramadol 225mg and Rohypnol to Istanbul, Turkey via Cairo on an Egypt Airline flight same day were frustrated by NDLEA operatives who arrested him.
He was at the airport to hand over the drugs hidden inside a bag of food items to an intending passenger, Idowu Ayoade, but was arrested before he succeeded in doing that.
Spokesperson for the antidrug agency, Femi Babafemi, in statement, yesterday, said, an intending passenger to Oman via Asky airline, Agbamuche Bright Nkeonye and a lady, Adeoye Oluwakemi Fatimo, who accompanied him to present a bag containing varieties of foodstuff and body lotion, which were used to conceal 1.10kg Cannabis sativa and some Rohypnol capsules were also arrested at the departure hall of the Lagos airport on Thursday, November 18.
According to Babafemi, antinarcotics officers attached to the Skyway Aviation Handling Company ( SAHCO) export shed of the airport equally foiled attempts by traffickers to smuggle consignments of Cannabis sativa and ecstasy tablets concealed in three tubers of yam going to Dubai, United Arab Emirate ( UAE) on Wednesday, November 17. The freight agent who presented the yams for export, Inegbu Ugochi Akunna, was promptly arrested while the consignor, Ahmodu Sulaimon was also nabbed thereafter.
At the Brawal container shed of Kirikiri lighter terminal in Lagos, NDLEA operatives equally intercepted cartons of deadly drinks in a container marked APZU3671697, during a joint examination with Customs. Though the bill of laded indicated that the container originated from Cape town, South Africa, a search of the shippers’ database showed it was loaded from Antwerp, Belgium. A full inspection of the container on Thursday, November 18, showed a total of five cartons of beverages labelled as Euphoria cannabis beer and three cartons of cannabis energy drink were found.
Other drinks in the container include: 21 cartons of a drink labelled as monkey shoulder; 20 cartons of dead man’s finger; and 139 of champagne fruit, among others.
IN a related development, about 5.6 kilogrammes of methamphetamine, cocaine and tramadol were discovered in items like play station, bicycles, motor propeller and local fabrics packaged for export to Australia and Cyprus through some courier firms in Lagos. Two suspects, Gabriel Emeka and Vintura Grillo were arrested in a follow up operation linked to one of the seizures.
In Niger State, NDLEA operatives on stop and search operation along Mokwa- Jebba road on Saturday, November 12, arrested two suspects: Ismail Musa and Jidda Abbas with 10,780 bottles of Akuskura, a new psychoactive substance concealed inside two Toyota Camry saloon cars marked: AGL 861 GS Lagos and KMK 118 SC Bayelsa. The consignment loaded in Ibadan, Oyo State, was going to Abuja for distribution.
While operatives intercepted 25,000 capsules of tramadol in Plateau State and arrested the owner, Ifeanyi Nweanwe, a beer parlour operator. In a follow up operation in Bauchi, pharmaceutical opioids worth more than N30 million were intercepted in a commercial bus in Asaba, Delta State on Thursday, November 18.