By Koforowola Fakeye, JKNewsMedia Reporter
AN ALLEGED attempt to traffic heroin through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, using her three-year-old son as cover ended with the arrest of a South African woman by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
JKNewsMedia.com reports that after discovering 14 large blocks of heroin weighing 5.75kg concealed in her luggage, the agency also halted several drug trafficking attempts at Nigeria’s airports and seaports resulting in multiple arrests and seizures.
NDLEA officers arrested the suspect on Monday 6 July 2026 during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR1433 from Doha to Abuja.
The agency said she initially denied travelling with checked-in bags, but officers established that two bags containing the drugs carried tags matching the claim tags attached to her passport.
She later admitted ownership of the bags and said she forgot she had checked them in.
The suspect claimed she travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
Intelligence leading to her arrest indicated she is a member of a transnational drug trafficking organisation alongside her husband or partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager, who is based in Cambodia, where they operate their drug network along the Cambodian South African axis.
In another operation, NDLEA officers at the Terminal 2 arrival hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, intercepted 48-year-old commercial motorcycle operator Onyechere Daniel Chinadu on 28 June 2026 after he arrived from Madagascar through Addis Ababa aboard an Ethiopian Airways flight.
A search of his checked backpack led to the discovery of 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed in clothes.
Onyechere said he had worked as an Okada rider for 15 years in the Oke Afo area of Lagos before a Uganda based friend recruited him into drug trafficking.
He said he ingested methamphetamine pellets in Uganda before beginning a planned journey to Madagascar to deliver the drug consignment.
He added that immigration authorities denied him entry on arrival in Madagascar, after which his friend and sponsor, Ozor Igo, who is based in Uganda, rerouted his flight to Lagos, where NDLEA officers arrested him.
NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy Femi Babafemi said on Sunday 12 July 2026 that the suspect could not state the exact number of pellets he had ingested and was placed under excretion observation for three days.
Between the date of his arrest and 1 July, he excreted 13 pellets in addition to the initial 87 wraps recovered from him, bringing the total to 100 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.715kg.
At the Apapa Seaport in Lagos, NDLEA officers, Customs personnel and other security agencies discovered 8,287 nylon bags of Canadian Loud weighing 4,143.5kg with a street value of more than ₦10.3bn in a container imported from Canada during a joint examination on Friday 10 July 2026.
The agency said the discovery followed weeks of targeted tracking and monitoring of the shipment from Montreal, Canada, by operatives of the Maritime Intelligence Unit (MIU) in collaboration with the Apapa Strategic Command.
NDLEA also said its operatives of the Directorate of Operation and General Investigation thwarted an attempt to export 2.5kg of skunk concealed in a gas compressor destined for Cyprus through a courier company in Lagos.
The agency said its commands and formations continued War Against Drug Abuse sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities during the past week. Activities included enlightenment lectures at Nnodo Secondary School, Abakaliki, Ebonyi, Government Girls Secondary School, Sabon Gida, Sharada, Kano, Royal Jesuit College, Agbado Ekiti, and Community Secondary School, Idofa, Ogun. The leadership of Zone 14 Command also paid a War Against Drug Abuse advocacy visit to Rivers State Governor Sir Siminalayi Fubara at Government House, Port Harcourt.
While commending officers and personnel of the Directorate of Operation and General Investigation, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Maritime Intelligence Unit and Apapa commands for the arrests and seizures, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa Retd said their drug supply reduction efforts were balanced with War Against Drug Abuse sensitisation activities and charged them not to rest on their past laurels.
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