By Jemimah Wellington, JKNewsMedia Correspondent
MULTIPLE DRUG traffickers including a former international football player, a 72-year-old grandmother, and Europe-based couriers have been arrested in sweeping operations carried out by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) across Lagos, Enugu, Delta, and Kwara States.
Operatives at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, apprehended Segun George Hunkarin, a former footballer who once played for clubs in Brazil, for attempting to take delivery of 800 grams of cocaine.
The substance was smuggled into the country by his partner, Ntoruka Emmanuel Chinedu, a frequent traveller who reportedly collected the drug-laden luggage during transit in Addis Ababa before arriving on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Turkey.
NDLEA officers arrested Hunkarin at the airport car park shortly after Chinedu’s search led to the discovery of 37 wraps of cocaine hidden in his hand luggage.
At the same airport, another businessman, Amen Okoro Godstime, was arrested during passenger screening for a Royal Air Maroc flight bound for Spain via Casablanca.
He was found with 5,000 tramadol 225mg pills concealed in packages branded as malaria medications such as Lonart and Amatem. Okoro claimed he planned to transport the pills to Italy via France after landing in Spain.
At Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, enforcement officers intercepted Ezenwaka Chibuzor Emmanuel, a bar worker returning from South Africa.
A search revealed 17 parcels of methamphetamine weighing 17.5 kilograms and three parcels of cocaine weighing 3.05 kilograms, all hidden in bedsheets.
On the same flight, 54-year-old toy seller Azu Follygan Kpodar was arrested with 1.25kg of liquid cocaine concealed in a branded liquid soap container.
He had travelled from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and claimed to be preparing for a wedding in Nigeria.
At the Seme border in Badagry, Lagos, 26-year-old Beninese national Vode Jean-Luck was arrested for attempting to smuggle 29.5 kilograms of skunk, a high-potency cannabis variant, into the country from the Republic of Benin.
In a separate raid in Kwara State, NDLEA operatives arrested a known dealer, Mary Bolanle Oladele, also known as Iya Nafi, with multiple quantities of skunk, tramadol, and flunitrazepam at her hideout in Omu-Aran, Irepodun LGA.
The crackdown extended to Delta State where a 72-year-old grandmother, Mrs Christy Ejaro, was arrested in Warri after being found in possession of retail-packed sachets of skunk.
The agency also sustained its public engagement through its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) programme, conducting sensitisation lectures at schools including Yakubawa Model Primary School in Katsina, Divine Favour International in Abia, and Mater Dei College in Enugu, among others.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended the commitment of the Agency’s commands in Lagos, Enugu, Delta, Kwara, and Seme for their sustained balance in both supply suppression and public advocacy operations across the country.
