Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested two businessmen, Ihejirika Okechukwu Emmanuel and Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory, along with Canada-based nurse Usman Grace Khadijat Olami, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos.
They were apprehended for attempting to import and export cocaine pellets and parcels of Loud through the airport.
Additionally, the agency seized drugs worth over N7 billion at the Apapa and Onne seaports.
Femi Babafemi, Director of Media and Advocacy at NDLEA Headquarters in Abuja, provided this information in a statement.
According to the statement, Ihejirika, who frequently travels to Thailand under the pretense of importing fish into Nigeria, was arrested on October 15 while trying to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Thailand via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Babafemi reported that a scan revealed he had ingested cocaine.
“As a result, he was placed under excretion observation during which he expelled five big egg size wraps of cocaine weighing 400 grammes. Later, the 51-year-old suspect confessed that he was to be paid upon successful delivery of the drug consignment in Thailand. He said he needed the money to boost his fish importation business,” Babafemi said.
Similarly, Babafemi stated that NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport intercepted 26-year-old businessman Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory last Thursday as he arrived from Brazil via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
A body scan indicated that he had ingested illicit drugs, and he subsequently excreted a pellet of cocaine weighing 22 grams, according to the statement.
“He, however, confessed that he ingested 30 wraps of the illicit drug in Brazil but excreted 29 pellets in Addis Ababa, where he handed them over to another person,” it said.
