NDLEA nabs businessman, retrieves 74 wraps of heroin, cocaine

• Intercepts two boats of illicit drugs

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 48-year-old businessman, Orizu Ifeanyi Arthur, who allegedly ingested 74 wraps of heroin and cocaine.

The suspect attempted to board an Air France flight 844 from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, to Paris, France.
Orizu was arrested at the boarding gate of the Abuja airport on Sunday, December 22, 2024, during the outward clearance of passengers on Air France.

Spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement yesterday, said when the suspect was pulled aside for a body scan, he turned down the request, claiming his medical condition wouldn’t allow him.

Babafemi stressed that the suspect was thereafter taken into custody for excretion observation, during which he excreted a total of 74 wraps of the Class A drugs over seven days.

In his statement, Orizu claimed he owns a shop at Balogun Market, Lagos Island, where he sells school and travelling bags. He was promised €3,000 upon successful delivery of the consignment in Paris. He left his base in Lagos for the Abuja airport to connect his Air France flight to Paris, hoping to escape detection.

In another interdiction effort, operatives of the Marine Command of NDLEA at about 2:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve, December 24, intercepted two boats loaded with 1,960 kilogrammes of Ghanaian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis at the Eleko Beach in the Lekki area of Lagos.

Six foreign nationals who brought the consignments from Ghana were arrested during the operation. They included two Ghanaians, Godsway John, 38, and Freedom Kelvin, 33, as well as four Beninese: Chegoun Hounsou, 23; Gadabor Nyameto, 47; Adantg Sasa, 34; and Ayao Kayivi, 21.

In Katsina State, a suspect, Ibrahim Shaibu, 35, was arrested in possession of 40 album-size parcels of compressed Cannabis sativa weighing 35kg on Christmas day, December 25, at Central Motor Park, Katsina, while another suspect, Umar Ahmed, 47, was nabbed along Zaria-Malumfashi road, Katsina with 27 parcels of same psychoactive substance weighing 13.5kg on Saturday, December 28.

A 21-year-old suspect, Kosisochukwu Ozigbo, was also arrested at new Lagos Road, Benin City, Edo State, when NDLEA operatives raided the area on Monday, December 23.

Recovered from the suspect included 32,490 pills of tramadol 225mg, 200mg and 100mg; 936 bottles of codeine-based syrup; and various quantities of other opioids.