S’African arrested with three-year-old son allegedly used as cover for heroin trafficking

A 48-year-old commercial motorcycle rider, popularly known as an okada rider, Onyechere Daniel Chinedu, excreted 13 additional pellets of methamphetamine after an initial 87 wraps were recovered from him, bringing the total to 100 wraps weighing 1.715 kilogrammes.

Chinedu was arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Terminal 2 arrival hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, on June 28, 2026, following his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

A thorough search of his checked backpack led to the discovery of 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed inside clothes.

In his statement, the suspect said he had worked as an okada rider in the Oke-Afa area of Lagos for 15 years before a Uganda-based friend recruited him into drug trafficking.

He claimed he ingested the methamphetamine pellets in Uganda before travelling to Madagascar to deliver the consignment. However, on arrival in Madagascar, immigration authorities denied him entry. According to him, his sponsor, identified as Ozor Igo and based in Uganda, subsequently rerouted him to Lagos, where he was arrested by NDLEA operatives.

As the suspect could not state the exact number of pellets he had swallowed, he was placed under excretion observation for three days, during which he excreted 13 additional pellets between the date of his arrest and July 1.

Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives also arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, Ms Will Jessica Ann, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, after discovering 14 large blocks of heroin weighing 5.75 kilogrammes concealed in her luggage. She allegedly travelled with her three-year-old son in an attempt to avoid suspicion and evade thorough security screening.

The suspect was arrested on Monday, July 6, 2026, during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways Flight QR1433 from Doha to Abuja.

Although she initially denied travelling with checked luggage, NDLEA operatives established that the baggage tags on the two suitcases containing the drugs matched the claim tags attached to her passport.

She later admitted ownership of the bags, claiming she had forgotten she had checked them in.

She told investigators she travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja. Intelligence reports indicate that she is allegedly a member of a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating along the Cambodia-South Africa route with her husband and partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager, who is based in Cambodia.

At the Apapa Seaport in Lagos, NDLEA officers, in collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies, discovered 8,287 nylon bags of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, weighing 4,143.5 kilogrammes, with an estimated street value of more than N10.3 billion.

The drugs were uncovered during a joint examination of a container imported from Canada on Friday, July 10, 2026.

The seizure followed weeks of intelligence-led tracking and monitoring of the shipment from Montreal, Canada, by operatives of the NDLEA Maritime Intelligence Unit in collaboration with the agency’s Apapa Strategic Command.

In a related operation, NDLEA operatives attached to the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) foiled an attempt to export 2.5 kilogrammes of skunk concealed inside a gas compressor destined for Cyprus through a courier company in Lagos.