The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has thwarted a desperate attempt by a woman, Ihensekhien Miracle Obehi, to smuggle 2.5 kilograms of cocaine out of the country through the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State.
This was disclosed in a statement shared by the Director of Media & Advocacy, Femi Babafemi on Sunday.
Babafemi said Obehi, who disguised in a hijab in a bid to evade detection, was intercepted on Sunday, 3 May, at the airport’s departure hall while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight to Iran via Doha.
Acting on credible intelligence, NDLEA officers conducted a search which revealed three wraps of cocaine concealed in her private part, two large parcels in false compartments of her handbag, and 67 pellets swallowed and hidden in her stomach.
Following her arrest, she was placed under close observation. Over the course of several days, she excreted all 67 wraps of the substance.
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She later confessed that she was meant to swallow 70 pellets but stopped at 67 due to discomfort and resorted to hiding the remaining three internally.
The total weight of the narcotics found on her was confirmed to be 2.523 kilograms.
In a related operation at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, on Friday, May 9, NDLEA officers intercepted a 22-year-old British national, Campell Kaizra Kofi Johannes Slifer, arriving from Thailand with 35 parcels of “Loud” – a potent strain of cannabis – weighing 37.6 kilograms.
Slifer, who admitted to previous convictions for drug trafficking and robbery in the UK, claimed he was recruited in London to carry the drugs into Nigeria.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives in Niger State intercepted a fuel truck and three other vehicles loaded with 246 bags of skunk (another cannabis strain) weighing over 3,000 kilograms along the Suleja-Kaduna Road. Four suspects were arrested in connection with the seizure.
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Additional arrests and seizures were recorded in Lagos, Kaduna, Kwara, Bauchi, and Kano States, including thousands of pills of tramadol and other controlled substances, large quantities of skunk, and over 775 litres of codeine syrup.
At a courier company in Lagos, NDLEA operatives also intercepted 1.1 kilograms of Loud concealed in a pillow in a parcel from Thailand.
Beyond enforcement, NDLEA’s War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign continued across the country, with sensitization lectures delivered in secondary schools and religious institutions in Sokoto, Anambra, Niger, Akwa Ibom, and Oyo States.
The NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended the dedication and bravery of the agency’s operatives nationwide.
He lauded their efforts to strike a balance between curbing drug supply and reducing demand through education and advocacy.
