A 50-year-old businessman has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for allegedly ingesting 90 wraps of cocaine at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA) in Enugu.
The arrest was confirmed by Femi Babafemi, the Director of Media and Advocacy for the NDLEA, in a statement issued on Sunday. Babafemi revealed that the suspect was apprehended on Wednesday while attempting to clear customs after arriving from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight. The arrest followed months of intelligence gathering and surveillance.
According to the NDLEA spokesperson, the suspect was detained during routine screening at the airport’s arrival hall. He was placed under excretion observation, during which he expelled 90 pellets of cocaine, weighing a total of 2.019 kg.
Further investigation revealed that the suspect, who runs a phone and accessories business in Lagos and Gabon, Central Africa, had traveled by road from Gabon to Douala, Cameroon, before catching a flight to Addis Ababa. It was during this transit that he swallowed the cocaine pellets before continuing his journey to Enugu, with Lagos as his final destination.
Babafemi noted that the suspect attempted to obscure his travel history by taking a convoluted route, but was unaware that he had been under NDLEA surveillance for the past three months. In his statement, the suspect admitted to engaging in the drug trade to finance his struggling business, which had been in decline.
The suspect’s arrest serves as another significant victory for the NDLEA in its ongoing efforts to curb drug trafficking and related criminal activities in the country.
