The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, Ms. Will Jessica Ann, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 5.75 kilogrammes of heroin into Nigeria while using her three-year-old son as cover to evade security scrutiny.
The agency also announced the interception of an alleged commercial motorcycle rider, popularly known as Okada, who excreted 100 wraps of methamphetamine after arriving in Lagos, as well as the seizure of 4,143.5 kilogrammes of Canadian Loud cannabis worth over N10.3 billion at the Apapa seaport.
NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, made these known in a statement in Abuja.
According to the statement, the South African was arrested on July 6, during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR1433 from Doha to Abuja.
The agency said the suspect initially denied travelling with any checked-in luggage. However, operatives established that two suitcases containing 14 large blocks of heroin bore baggage tags corresponding with the claim tags attached to her passport.
Faced with the evidence, she admitted ownership of the bags, claiming she had forgotten she checked them in.
The suspect told investigators she travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
The NDLEA said intelligence gathered during the investigation indicated that she and her husband or partner, identified as Jan Coenraad De Jager, are members of a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating from Cambodia along the Cambodian-South African drug trafficking route.
Also, troops of 65 Battalion, Nigerian Army, have intercepted a truck conveying a large consignment of illicit drugs on Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, the headquarters 81 Division said yesterday.
It said the seizure followed credible intelligence received and acted upon on July 9, which led to the arrest of the truck driver.
Preliminary investigations showed the consignment was allegedly being transported to the Berger area of Lagos State, though the suspect could not provide satisfactory information on the ownership or intended recipient of the drugs.
The suspect and the recovered drugs were handed over to the NDLEA, Lagos State Command, for further investigation and prosecution, said a statement by spokesman, Lt.Col. Musa Yahaya.
According to Yahaya, the handover was carried out by the Commanding Officer, 65 Battalion, Lt Colonel S. Adeojo.
The General Officer Commanding (GOC), 81 Division, Maj.-Gen Adebayo Babalola, commended the troops for their vigilance and professionalism. He urged them to sustain the operational tempo and intensify efforts to deny drug traffickers and other criminal elements freedom of action within the division’s area of responsibility.
Yahaya said the GOC also visited the Forward Operating Base (FOB) Imeko in Ogun State, where he charged the troops to be professional in their duties.
Babalola cautioned the troops against acts of harassment, extortion and misconduct, stressing that indiscipline and actions capable of tarnishing the image of the Nigerian Army would not be tolerated.
Babafemi said in a separate operation at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, the agency’s operatives arrested a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle operator, Onyechere Daniel Chinadu, after he arrived from Madagascar via Addis Ababa aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight on June 28.
He said a search of the suspect’s checked-in backpack led to the recovery of 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed inside clothing.
He said during interrogation, the suspect said he had worked as an Okada rider in Oke-Afa, Lagos for 15 years before being recruited into drug trafficking by a friend based in Uganda.
The suspect claimed he ingested additional pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before embarking on a trip to Madagascar to deliver the illicit consignment. However, he was denied entry by immigration authorities in Madagascar, prompting his sponsor, identified as Ozor Igo and based in Uganda, to reroute him to Lagos, where he was eventually arrested.
Unable to state the exact number of drug pellets he had swallowed, the suspect was placed under medical observation, Babafemi said.
He said between the date of the suspect’s arrest and July 1, he excreted 13 additional pellets, bringing the total number recovered from him to 100, with a combined weight of 1.715 kilograms.
Babafemi said at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos, NDLEA operatives, working with officers of the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies, intercepted a shipment containing 8,287 nylon bags of Canadian Loud cannabis weighing 4,143.5 kilograms.
The agency estimated the street value of the consignment at over N10.3 billion.
The drugs were concealed in a container imported from Canada and were uncovered during a joint examination conducted on Friday, July 10.
Babafemi said the seizure followed weeks of intelligence-led tracking and monitoring of the container from its point of departure in Montreal, Canada, by the Maritime Intelligence Unit of the NDLEA in collaboration with the agency’s Apapa Strategic Command.
In another operation, NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) foiled an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk, a strain of cannabis, concealed inside a gas compressor destined for Cyprus through a Lagos-based courier company.
NDLEA Chairman Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd.), praised the officers’ efforts in reducing the supply of illicit drugs while sustaining public sensitisation campaigns.
He urged the officers to remain committed to the fight against drug trafficking and abuse.
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