By Jemimah Wellington, JKNewsMedia Reporter
A surge in drug trafficking operations at the Lagos airport and seaports has led to multiple arrests, with several suspects caught attempting to smuggle cocaine and synthetic cannabis.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) intercepted individuals at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, attempting to import and export narcotics.
A businessman, Ihejirika Okechukwu Emmanuel, was apprehended on October 15, 2024, while trying to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Thailand.
A body scan revealed that he had ingested five large egg-sized wraps of cocaine, totaling 400 grams.
He confessed to smuggling the drugs to support his fish import business.
Another suspect, 26-year-old Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory, was detained after arriving from Brazil via Addis Ababa.
His body scan showed traces of cocaine, and further investigation revealed he had ingested 30 wraps of cocaine, although he only excreted one wrap upon arrival.
Victory admitted to trafficking the drugs for a fee of N2.5 million.
Meanwhile, a Canadian-based nurse, Usman Grace Khadijat Olami, was arrested on October 4, 2024, upon arrival from Toronto via Paris.
A search of her luggage led to the discovery of 70 parcels of Canadian Loud, a synthetic cannabis, weighing 35.70 kilograms.
She claimed her boyfriend instructed her to smuggle the drugs into Nigeria.
In a separate operation, NDLEA officers, in collaboration with Customs officials, seized 162,351 bottles of codeine syrup at the Apapa seaport.
At the Port Harcourt Port Complex in Onne, Rivers State, officers intercepted another shipment containing 7.2 million pills of Royal 225mg Tapentadol and Carisoprodol, valued at over N3.6 billion.
Other recoveries from two additional containers included 15.6 million pills of chlorphenamine and 337,000 bottles of codeine syrup.
Elsewhere, the NDLEA arrested a suspect, Sunday Jonathan Ogenyi, on the Bauchi-Jos road with 76,600 pills of tramadol hidden in his vehicle.
In Edo State, the agency destroyed over 10,590 kilograms of cannabis on farmlands and arrested suspects involved in its cultivation.
The NDLEA’s intensified efforts to curb drug abuse also extended to community awareness through the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign, targeting schools, religious institutions, and workplaces across the country.
