A 50-year-old businessman, Osuoha Christian Iheanacho, has excreted 90 wraps of cocaine after his arrest at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu State.

The businessman was arrested by the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for allegedly ingesting 90 wraps of cocaine.

The NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, November 24, 2024.

Babafemi said Osuoha was intercepted at the arrival hall of the Enugu airport during the inbound screening of passengers arriving from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight following months of intelligence and surveillance on him on Wednesday, November 20.

He said the businessman was subsequently placed on excretion observation during which Osuoha egested 90 pellets of cocaine weighing 2.019 kilograms in seven excretions.

He noted that an investigation revealed that the suspect who operates a phone and accessories business in Lagos and Gabon travelled by road from Gabon to Douala in Cameroon from where he took a flight to Addis Ababa where he swallowed the pellets of cocaine while in transit and thereafter continued his journey to Enugu with Lagos as his final destination.

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Babafemi stated: “He deliberately complicated his movement to distort traces of his travel history unknown to him that he has been on NDLEA watchlist for the past three months.

“In his statement, Osuoha said he desperately needed the money from the criminal drug trade to boost his declining phone and accessories business.”

Babafemi disclosed that the NDLEA officers, on Thursday, November 21, arrested the suspected head of a cocaine distribution cartel, 42-year-old Ndive Maxwell Obinna, alongside five of his associates at Ago Palace Way in Okota, Isolo, Lagos State.

The NDLEA spokesman said 2.412 kilograms of cocaine were recovered from the suspects.

He listed other suspects arrested with Obinna to include Okeke Gloria Ifeoma, Ikechebelu Emmanuel Chibuzor, Okorie Onyedikach,  Okonkwo Nnabugo Prince, and Okafor Blessing Anita.

The Star