• Siezes drug consignments, arrests suspects nationwide
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a woman, Ihensekhien Miracle Obehi, who disguised herself with a hijab to export large consignments of cocaine concealed in her private parts, stomach, and the false bottom of her handbag to Iran at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State.
Obehi, dressed in a hijab to evade security checks, was intercepted at the departure hall of the Port Harcourt airport on Sunday, May 3, while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Iran via Doha, following credible intelligence.
During her search, she was found to have inserted three wraps of cocaine in her private parts, concealed two large parcels in false compartments of her handbag, and swallowed 67 pellets of the Class A drug.
As a result, she was placed under excretion observation, and after four excretions spanning several days, she expelled the 67 wraps of the substance. She claimed she intended to swallow 70 pellets of cocaine but could not ingest the remaining three, which she decided to insert into her private parts.
The total weight of the three consignments concealed in different parts of her body was 2.523 kilogrammes.
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, on Friday, May 9, intercepted a 22-year-old British national, Campell Kaizra Kofi Johannes Slifer, arriving from Thailand via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight. He was found with two suitcases containing 35 parcels of Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, weighing 37.60 kilogrammes.
Campell, who admitted to having been twice convicted in the UK for drug trafficking and robbery, stated he was recruited in London to travel to Thailand, collect the illicit consignment, and bring it to Nigeria.
In Niger State, NDLEA officers, acting on intelligence, intercepted a fuel truck marked ABJ 693 XU and three other vehicles carrying 246 bags of skunk, a cannabis strain, with a combined weight of 3,047 kilogrammes along the Suleja-Kaduna road on Wednesday, May 7.
Four suspects arrested with the exhibits are Christopher Onyema, 47; Benedict Etineruba Young, 54; Chukwudi Ujue Jerry, 30; and Mohammed Abdullahi Danasabe. Vehicles recovered from the suspects include a fuel truck and three others: a Honda Odyssey bus marked YAB 667 CZ, a Gulf bus with registration number GWA 125 TQ, and another Honda Odyssey bus marked ABJ 230 CN.
In Lagos, at Oja Amukoko in the Ijora area, two suspects, Eze Chekube Emmanuel and Ike Samuel Chinyerem, were arrested on Thursday, May 8, with 109,914 pills of tramadol, swinol, and nitrozepam seized from them.
Meanwhile, in Kaduna State, 52.5 kilogrammes of skunk were recovered from two suspects, Lukman Sabo Umar, 23, and Tukur Ammadu, 20, in a bus at Gwantu, Sanga Local Council, on Tuesday, May 6. On Monday, May 5, NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Bode Saadu-Jebba expressway in Kwara State arrested Rufai Nasiru with 45,400 pills of tramadol 225mg.
In Bauchi State, NDLEA officers on patrol along the Bauchi-Gombe road on Tuesday, May 6, intercepted a Toyota Tundra jeep marked RBC 111 DW carrying 526 blocks of skunk weighing 505 kilogrammes. Two suspects, Isaac Onogure, 37, and Ikechukwu Peter, 44, were arrested.
In Kano State, 31 kegs containing 775 litres of codeine syrup were recovered from two suspects, Hafizu Isa Uman, 34, and Ismail Shehu, 48, during a raid at their hideout in the Rijiyar Zaki area on Saturday, May 10. In Lagos, NDLEA operatives also intercepted 1.1 kilogrammes of Loud, concealed in a pillow from Thailand, at a courier company on Tuesday, May 6.
