Vietnam-bound businessman, Paul Okwuy Mbadugha, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja after he tested positive to ingestion of cocaine.
In a statement on Sunday in Abuja, the spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, said that the 54-year-old suspect was intercepted at the boarding gate of the Abuja airport on Monday 12th August 2024 during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam via Doha.
“After four days under excretion observation, Mbadugha egested a total of 88 wraps of the illicit drug with a gross weight of 1.710kgs.
“In his statement, he claimed he was a Lagos based businessman and was given the cocaine pellets to swallow by a friend at Isolo area of the state for onward delivery in Vietnam for a fee of $2,000,” Babafemi said.
In the same vein, NDLEA officers at the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja Lagos have intercepted a shipment of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 800 grams concealed in noodles going to Congo.
A follow up operation at the Alaba International market, Ojo area of Lagos led to the arrest of the sender of the consignment, Nnamani Sunday Sunny, who deals in GSM handsets.
Meanwhile, a large consignment of Loud imported from Canada have been recovered by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport.
A suspect, Desalu Taophic Temitope, who arrived on board an Air France flight with six boxes was arrested by anti-narcotic officers during a joint examination by security agencies at the arrival hall.
A total of 65.80kgs of the psychoactive substance were recovered from four of the six suitcases.
In his statement, Desalu said he and an accomplice currently at large were promised $10,000 upon successful delivery of the shipment in Lagos.
Also, no less than 892,400 bottles of codeine-based syrup worth N6,246,800,000 in street value were recovered from five containers by NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers State during a joint examination of the containers with men of the Nigeria Customs and other port stakeholders on Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th August 2024.
The bottles of the opioid were packed in 5,337 cartons with a gross weight of 133,860kgs and shipped in five containers from India.
In Ekiti State, NDLEA operatives supported by men of the Nigerian Army and other security agencies as well as community youths on Wednesday 14th August raided the Ise forest reserve, Saalaja camp, Ise-Ekiti, where 21,800kgs of cannabis sativa on 20 hectares of farm land were destroyed.
In Abuja, NDLEA officers on patrol along Kwali-Gwagwalada expressway on Tuesday 13th August intercepted a truck from which 30,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection were recovered and three suspects: Ifeanyi Sunday, Jeremiah Paul and Edet Ubokobong arrested.
While operatives in Niger State on Thursday 15th August arrested Ifeanyi Chukwueze in Kontagora town with 28, 500 pills of tramadol concealed in a loudspeaker, their counterparts in Kogi State on Wednesday 14th August nabbed Abba Yakubu with 40,000 pills of the same opioid heading to Kontagora.
Another suspect, Tochukwu Onah, 39, was arrested by NDLEA officers at Paparanda, Lokoja, Kogi State on Thursday 15th August, 2024, with 1,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection.