A France-bound passenger who was supposed to board Air France flight from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA after the agents discovered he ingested illicit drugs

The 40-year-old ‘businessman’, Sherif Egbo, was arrested on Saturday, October 14, after a body scanner revealed that he had wraps of illicit drugs in his stomach.

Femi Babafemi, the spokesperson for the NDLEA, said the passenger was subsequently placed under observation at the agency’s exhibit recovery room, where he excreted 93 pellets of heroin weighing 2.222 kilogrammes.

In his statement, the suspect claimed he works at a chicken hatchery farm in Madrid, Spain, and also in the drug trafficking business,” Babafemi revealed in a weekly communique released on Sunday.

The communique further revealed that NDLEA operatives at the NAHCO imports shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos, on Monday, October 16, seized a consignment of 10 cartons containing 500,000 pills of tramadol 225mg branded as tapentadol.

Two more seizures – 112 grams of Dimethyl Sulfone and 583 grams of Cocaine and phenacetin were made at another courier company in Lagos on Wednesday, October 18. While the Dimethyl Sulfone was concealed in the hollow of a motor driving shaft going to New Zealand, the consignment of Cocaine and phenacetin was packed into a bottle of body cream heading to Saudi Arabia.

In Imo state, operatives on Sunday, October 15, intercepted a Mercedes Benz container truck marked ABN 418 YN parked in an isolated area along the Owerri-Onitsha expressway. Searching the abandoned truck led to the recovery of 168 bags of skunk weighing 1,854 kilograms.

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The week-long report further revealed that less than 1,381.3kgs of the same substance were seized in four interdiction operations in parts of Edo state including – Ekpon community, Igueben LGA; Iguiye forest in Ovia North East LGA; Iruekpen, Ndokwa West where a suspect, Monday Nwocha was arrested; and in Egwalor village in Onwude LGA where the duo of Obune Prince and Chika Obi were arrested and their Audi 80 salon car marked BEN 406 CL loaded with cannabis sativa, recovered.

In Kano state, an ex-convict, Aminu Suleiman, 46, was arrested along with Haruna Abdurrahaman, 41, and Ojo Esezobor, 34, at Gadar Tamburawa area of the state on Saturday, October 14, while 106kgs of cannabis were recovered from them. The NDLEA noted that Aminu was first arrested with 22kgs of cannabis on June 3, 2022, and was convicted by the court on November 24, 2022.

Four other suspects – Inusa Ali, Yahaya Musa, Abba Audu, Ali Abubakar, and Bunu Kyari were also arrested at Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano on Monday, 16th October for dealing in 75.3kgs of skunk.