Businesswoman conceals 1.40kg meth in butt pad
underwear as Agency intercepts illicit drug shipments in phone chargers, food
items going to Europe, Hong Kong at Lagos airport; large consignments of skunk,
opioid in Zamfara, Adamawa
Two Brazil returnees: Ofoma Sunday and Ukachukwu Frank
Ikechukwu have excreted a total of 116 wraps of heroin and cocaine they
ingested after days in observatory custody following their arrest by operatives
of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed
International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja Lagos.
One of the suspects, 46-year-old Ofoma was arrested on
Tuesday 16th September 2025 at terminal 2 of the Lagos airport upon his arrival
from Laos, Brazil on an Ethiopian airlines flight. He was taken for body scan
which confirmed ingestion of illicit drugs. Ofoma had left Nigeria for Brazil
on 3rd September to courier the consignment to Lagos for a reward of $2,500
upon successful delivery.
A swift follow-up operation was conducted at Eliata
Hotel in Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos where Ofoma was instructed to meet Nweke
Jude Chuckwudi who was designated to oversee the excretion of the drugs at the
hotel and recover them. The 55-year-old Nweke was arrested in the process. A
total of 111 wraps of heroin weighing 1.452 kilograms were egested in eight
excretions by Ofoma.
Similarly, another Brazil returnee Ukachukwu Frank
Ikechukwu, was arrested at the Lagos airport during the inward clearance of
Ethiopian Airlines passengers from Brazil via Addis Ababa on Friday 19th
September. He was taken for body scan which confirmed illicit drug insertion.
Under excretion observation, Ukachukwu expelled five big wraps of cocaine
weighing 145 grams.
In his statement, he confessed to have bought nine
wraps of the class A drug in Brazil and inserted all into his anus, a process
he claimed took him nearly two hours. During his transit through Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, he said he began to experience severe anal pain and decided to remove
the wraps from his body. He stated that in an attempt to meet up with his
connecting flight to Nigeria, he could only manage to reinsert seven wraps,
after which he flushed the remaining two wraps in a toilet.
The suspect revealed that while on board his flight to
Nigeria, he felt pressed and uncomfortable, which compelled him to use the
lavatory. During the process, he expelled an additional two wraps, leaving him
with only five wraps in his anus. He claimed to have been into clothing
business before traveling to Brazil in 2017. In 2020, he moved to the United
States, where he was arrested for
immigration offence and was detained for over a year before being
deported to Nigeria in 2022.
In March 2025, he returned to Brazil, where he
currently works, having already obtained a Brazilian residence permit.
Meanwhile, a businesswoman Okolonkwo Ebere Theresa was
on Sunday 14th September taken into custody after Aviation Security Officers of
FAAN in collaboration with NDLEA operatives attached to the screening point of
terminal 2 of the Lagos airport arrested her for concealing illicit drug in her
underwear while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Doha, Qatar.
After a thorough search, two big parcels of white
crystalline substance that later tested positive to methamphetamine with a
gross weight of 1.40 kilograms were recovered from her butt pad underwear.
During preliminary interview with Ebere, she claimed she trades in used
clothing and also operates a POS business in Enugu where she was recruited into
the illicit drug business.
At the NAHCO export shed of the Lagos airport, NDLEA
operatives on Monday 15th September intercepted a consignment of food items
used to conceal 40 wraps of methamphetamine with a total weight of 2.30
kilograms heading to Hong Kong via Turkish Airlines. A 59-year-old suspect,
Umelo Ifeanyi Venatus, who presented the consignment as part of a consolidated
cargo, has been taken into custody.
Another consignment of illicit drug packaged for
Europe was intercepted by NDLEA operatives at a courier company in Lagos on
Thursday 18th September. During a thorough examination of the shipment, seven
pieces of phone charger going to New Zealand were found to contain 257 grams of
cocaine.
In Adamawa, no fewer than 233,800 pills of tramadol
were recovered by NDLEA operatives in three raids with two suspects arrested in
parts of the state. A total of 195,600 pills of the opioid were recovered from
an abandoned Toyota Sienna vehicle in Mayo Belwa area of Yola South on
Wednesday 17th September, while a suspect Rita Zira was nabbed in Jambutu area
of Jimeta Yola with 27,900 pills of tramadol discovered in her bedroom. Another
suspect, Halilu Abubakar, 22, was arrested with 10,300 pills of same substance
by NDLEA officers at Namtari checkpoint, Yola on Saturday 20th September.
No less than 109 bags of skunk, a strain of cannabis,
weighing 1,099.4 kilograms were seized from a suspect Hammed Danladi Aliyu, 40,
by NDLEA operatives supported by members of the Community Protection Guards
(CPG) along Gummi-Daki Takwas road, Zamfara state while conveying the
consignment in a Mitsubishi Canter truck marked LRN 568XB to a village called
Company in Gummi LGA on Saturday 20th September.
While two suspects: Babangida Usman and Ismail Ibrahim
were arrested with 14, 000 capsules of
tramadol along Damaturu-Potiskum road, Yobe state, NDLEA operatives in Taraba
on Wednesday 17th September 17 nabbed Anas Hamisu, 28, with three sacks of
skunk that weighed 25.525kg, at Garba-Chede, Bali LGA.
In Edo state, two cannabis farms on 4.532025 hectares
located at Atororo forest in Owan West LGA with an estimated yield of
11,330.0625kg were on Wednesday 17th September destroyed by NDLEA officers who
also recovered eleven bags of processed skunk and seeds weighing 148kg.
Suspects arrested at the plantations include: Mathew Onoja, 56; Moses Thomas
Male, 18; and Friday Uchenjin, 38.
With the same vigour, Commands and formations of the
Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA)
sensitization activities to schools, worship centres, work places and
communities among others in the past week. These include: WADA sensitization
lecture to students and staff of Sultan Abdulrahman College of Health
Technology, Gwadabawa, Sokoto; Sarki Abdul Primary School, Dankama border town,
Katsina; Government Secondary School, Gwaram, Jigawa; St. Mary Junior Secondary School, North Bank
Makurdi, Benue; and Ummulkhair Islamiyya, Tudun Wada, Kano, while
Zone 11 Command of NDLEA paid a WADA advocacy visit to
Enugu State First Lady Mrs. Nkechinyere Mbah, among others.
“These arrests and seizures represent a significant milestone in our determined effort to dismantle drug trafficking organizations operating in Nigeria and around the world, prioritizing those bent on targeting our productive youth population with illicit substances until they’re no longer able to inflict harm on our communities or misrepresent our country’s image in the global space”, said the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) while commending the officers and men of MMIA, DOGI, Adamawa, Zamfara, Edo, Taraba, and Yobe Commands for the various successful operations. He enjoined them and their colleagues across the country to continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the drug control efforts of the Agency
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