Brazil returnee excretes 60 wraps of cocaine in custody
admin
NDLEA seizes 599,900 tramadol pills from Pakistan, declares ex-beauty queen wanted
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a Brazil returnee, Udechukwu Ekene Theophilus, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, for ingesting 60 wraps of cocaine.
The suspect, who was arrested during inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the D-Arrival Hall of the Lagos airport on Sunday, January 21, initially refused to undergo body scan, raising health concerns, in a bid to evade arrest.
Confirming the development, spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, said when the suspect was, however, offered other options, he accepted to be placed on ‘excretion observation’. Shortly after he was ushered into NDLEA’s observatory, he excreted the first set of cocaine pellets. Altogether, he expelled 60 wraps of the class-A drug weighing 1.279kg in five excretions.
In his statement, Theophilus 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.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Tuesday, January 23, recovered 12 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing 599,900 pills, weighing 385.40kg, from an overstayed cargo at the Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) import shed of the Lagos airport, after a joint examination with other agencies.
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. They were, however, placed under watch by NDLEA operatives.
Also, about 822kg 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 the same substance at Maigatari town in Jigawa State, on Tuesday, January 23.
In Yobe State, two suspects: Mohammed Usman and Adamu Ma’azu were arrested on Saturday, January 27, with 49 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 50kg at Damaturu motor park, Damaturu.
Also, the duo of Paul Obor, 38, and Dennis Fuokorighe, 48, arrested on Wednesday, January 24, at a Navy check point in Itobe, Ofu Local Council, Kogi State were, on Friday, January 26, handed over to the Kogi State command of the agency by men of the Nigeria Navy Ship, Lugard, Lokoja.
They were found with 318 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 190.8kg, concealed in a gold coloured Honda Accord Car, marked RBC 449AE. In Kano, a suspect, Shamwilu Idris, 29, was arrested at the Gadar Tamburawa area on Thursday January 25, with 271kg of cannabis, following the seizure of an abandoned 28.1kg of the same substance at the Rijiyar Lemo area of the state on Wednesday, January 24.
Another suspect, Abubakar Haruna Salisu, 24, was nabbed at Kotun Wambai, in the Yan Awaki area of Kano, on Friday, January 26, with 600 bottles of codeine-based syrup, while 1,306 blocks of cannabis, weighing 886kg, seized by the police at the Kwanar Dangora area of the state were transferred to the agency on Wednesday, January 24.
Also, 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 of cannabis at the Layin Zana area of Jos. Meanwhile, an ex-beauty queen, Aderinoye Queen Christmas, also known as Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, has been declared wanted by the agency after she escaped from her Lekki residence. NDLEA operatives had raided her apartment at Oral Estate on Wednesday, January 24, following credible intelligence that she dealt in illicit substances.
The suspect was Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and founder of Queen Christmas Foundation. Recovered from her home during a search witnessed by officials of the estate were: 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, large quantities of plastics for packing drugs, a black RAV 4 SUV, marked Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and her picture frame, among others.
Two members of an international drug trafficking syndicate: Sunday Michael Owoborode, 52, and Valentine Anene were arrested the next day Thursday, January 25, at Edu Orita, Ogun State. Anene was being prepared to travel with some drugs to Qatar, the same day, on board a Qatar airline flight from Lagos.
At the time of their arrest, 1.8kg cannabis, electronic weighing scale and other illicit substances were found on them. In another interdiction by operatives in Lagos, a 50-year-old Sunday Adediran was arrested on Wednesday, January 24, with 20kg Cannabis sativa found in one of the rooms in his house at Mushin Olosha.
