The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has
arrested a Brazilian national, Benevides, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International
Airport, Abuja, over an attempt to smuggle heroin worth more than ?3 billion
into Nigeria.
In a statement issued on Sunday, NDLEA spokesman, Femi
Babafemi, disclosed that the illicit drugs were cleverly concealed in
factory-sealed coffee packs carried in the suspect’s luggage.
According to Babafemi, the suspect, a private security
officer in Brazil, was placed under intelligence-led surveillance before being
intercepted on Friday after arriving in Abuja aboard a Qatar Airways flight.
He explained that a search of her two checked-in bags
uncovered 21 factory-sealed packs of Brazilian coffee which, when opened,
revealed white substances that later tested positive for heroin.
“The total weight of the heroin was 30.09 kilograms,
making it the single largest heroin seizure ever recorded at the Abuja
airport,” Babafemi said.
During preliminary interrogation, the suspect
reportedly claimed she brought the consignment under the guise of visiting
Nigeria for a holiday.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed
International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, intercepted two passengers —
Adediran Adedoyin and Afatakpa Ochuko — on January 20 while they were en route
to Istanbul, Turkey.
Babafemi said the suspects were found with 3,990 pills
of tapentadol (250mg) and tramadol (225mg), which were concealed inside food
items packed in their luggage on a Turkish Airlines flight.
In another operation, officers of the NDLEA Marine
Command intercepted a wooden boat conveying 44 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud
cannabis, weighing a total of 1,848 kilograms, at Jakande Beach, Lekki, Lagos,
in the early hours of January 22.
“The consignment had just arrived from Ghana when
NDLEA officers, acting on credible intelligence, stormed the area around 1am,
recovered the drugs and seized the boat,” Babafemi stated.
Also in Kaduna State, NDLEA operatives arrested two
suspects — Aminu Baba, 20, and Abdulrasheed Abubakar, 28 — in connection with
two bags containing 140 packets of explosives intercepted along the
Kaduna–Zaria highway.
Babafemi said the explosives were recovered from a
commercial bus, while the suspects were apprehended during follow-up operations
in Kano and Kaduna.
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