NDLEA nabs India-bound businessman with 9.40kg heroin at Lagos airport

•Arrests another at Abuja airport, intercepts skunk consignments, meth
in soap bars at courier firm; seizes 778, 190 pills of tramadol, others

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have arrested a businessman, Kingsley Celestino, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, over 9.40 kilogrammes of heroin concealed in false bottoms of his two travelling bags.

Kingsley, a business class passenger on Qatar Airline flight was arrested at Terminal 2 of the MMIA on Saturday 4th March on his way to India. Though a native of Nnewi South Local Council of Anambra State, the 49-year-old was travelling with a Guinean international passport.

Spokesperson for the Agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement, yesterday, said preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect frequently travels to India on business class tickets.

Babafemi stressed that the suspect claimed he deals in clothing business between Nigeria and India.

It was further established that he obtained the Guinean international passport in Guinea Bissau, where he said his mother came from.

In the same vein, a 24-year-old passenger travelling to Oman, Etounu Monday, was intercepted at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, on Monday, February 27, during the outward clearance of Ethiopian Airline flight ET 950 while attempting to export 1.924kg of skunk concealed in cream tubes.

At the Tincan seaport, Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Friday, March 3, recovered 244 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 79 kilogrammes concealed in medium size wooden sound system speakers packed inside two out of four used vehicles in a container marked CRSU9258348 coming from Toronto via Montreal, Canada. The imported vehicles used as cover for the drugs are a 2009 Jeep Wrangler and a 2009 Honda Ridgeline.

Similarly, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI), attached to courier firms in Lagos, intercepted a consignment of nine parcels of methamphetamine concealed in native black soap, Dudu Osun, heading to Europe.

According to Babafemi, about 778,190 pills of pharmaceutical opioids including tramadol and a drum of 270kg Methylene Chloride were recovered by operatives from a suspect, Eric Pepe Yohanna, 33, in Jalingo, Taraba State on Monday, February 27, following credible intelligence.

Also, seized from him is a Day-long tricycle used in distributing the illicit substances.

In Adamawa State, the house of a wanted notorious drug dealer, Mamudu Njobdi at Sebore, Gyalla road Dougada ward, Mubi was raided in the early hours of Monday, February 27, where he was arrested and drug exhibits recovered.

The 31-year-old suspect was earlier arrested on Wednesday, February 22, at his drug joint in Kolere water board, but mobilised thugs to attack NDLEA officers and in the process escaped with exhibits.

While a suspect, Geoffrey Okpani, 31, was arrested at Bukuru area of Jos, Plateau State with 27.45kg of Cannabis sativa, Ajayi Tope, 30, was arrested on Saturday, March 4, at Area 5 Ile-Ife, in Ife South Local Council of Osun State with 18kg of same substance.

In Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Friday, March 3, raided De-Niche Hotel & Suites, Omole estate, Ojodu, Ikeja, where 24 suspects were arrested and different quantities of illicit drugs recovered from them.

Reacting to the arrests and seizures of the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (Retd), commended the officers, men and women of MMIA, NAIA, Tincan, Taraba, Adamawa, Plateau, Osun and Lagos Commands as well as DOGI for their efforts.

He charged them and their counterparts across the country to intensify the ongoing mop up operations to deny political thugs access to illicit substances ahead of the governorship and House of Assembly elections this weekend.