The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, on Sunday, said its operatives have arrested a Brazil returnee, Udechukwu Ekene Theophilus, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos for ingesting 60 big wraps of cocaine.

NDLEA said the suspect, who was arrested during inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the D-Arrival Hall of the Lagos airport on Sunday 21st January 2024, initially refused to undergo body scan, raising health concerns in a desperate bid to evade arrest.

According to the agency, he accepted to be placed on excretion observation and shortly after he was ushered into NDLEA observatory, the suspect excreted the first set of cocaine pellets weighing 1.279 kilograms in five excretions.

In a statement issued on Sunday by Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Udechukwu claimed he ingested the consignment in Brazil and was to discharge everything at the airport in Addis Ababa but could only excrete 15 pellets which he handed over to another member of his syndicate before his connecting flight to Nigeria was called.

Babafemi also announced that NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Tuesday 23rd January recovered a total of twelve (12) cartons of tramadol 225mg containing five hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred (599,900) pills weighing 385.40kg from an overstayed cargo at the SAHCO import shed of the Lagos airport after a joint examination with other agencies.

According to the statement, the tramadol consignment had come into the country in two batches on KLM Royal Dutch Airline flights from Karachi, Pakistan, between July 27 and August 1, 2023. However, they were placed under watch by NDLEA operatives since then.

This is even as he said that not less than 822 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa hidden in a fuel station located at Ashipa community along Badagry-Seme road were recovered by operatives of the Seme Special Area Command of NDLEA, while a suspect, Sani Audu, 35, was arrested with 111.3kg of same substance at Maigatari town in Jigawa State on Tuesday, January 23rd.

Announcing other interceptions and seizures made by the NDLEA, Babafemi said: “In Yobe state, two suspects: Mohammed Usman and Adamu Ma’azu were arrested on Saturday 27 with 49 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 50kg at Damaturu motor park, Damaturu, while the duo of Paul Obor, 38, and Dennis Fuokorighe, 48, who were arrested on Wednesday 24th Jan. at a Navy check point, Itobe, Ofu LGA, Kogi state with 318 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 190.8kg concealed in a gold colour Honda Accord Car marked RBC 449AE, were handed over to the Kogi state command of the Agency on Friday 26th Jan. by men of the Nigeria Navy Ship, Lugard, Lokoja.

“In Kano, a suspect, Shamwilu Idris, 29, was arrested at Gadar Tamburawa area on Thursday, January 25 with 271kg cannabis following the seizure of an abandoned 28.1kg of same substance at Rijiyar Lemo area of the state on Wednesday, January 24.

Another suspect, Abubakar Haruna Salisu, 24, was nabbed at Kotun Wambai, Yan Awaki, area of Kano on Friday, January 26, with 600 bottles of codeine-based syrup while a total of 1, 306 blocks of cannabis weighing 886kg seized by the Police at Kwanar Dangora, area of the state were transferred to the Agency on Wednesday, January 24 Jannuary.

He continued, “A total of 87 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 73kg as well as 21, 346 pills of tramadol and 3,800 tablets of diazepam were recovered from a suspect, Musa Galadima on Friday, January 26, when his DAF truck marked GME 971 XD was intercepted at Lafiyawo, along Gombe – Bauchi road by NDLEA operatives. In Plateau state, Aminu Ubanta, 35, was nabbed on Saturday, January 27, with 5.355kg cannabis at Layin Zana area of Jos.

Reacting to the development, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) commended the officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, Seme, Kano, Gombe, Kogi, Plateau and Jigawa Commands of the Agency for their outstanding feats in the past week.

Marwa equally applauded their counterparts in all the commands across the country for intensifying their WADA advocacy lectures thus creating a balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction activities.

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