The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested two businessmen, Ihejirika Okechukwu Emmanuel and Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory, for attempting to import and export cocaine through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in the Ikeja area of Lagos State.

Ihejirika, who frequents Thailand from where he claimed to be importing fish into Nigeria, was arrested while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Thailand via Addis Ababain Ethiopia on Tuesday, October 15, 2024,

The NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, October 20.

Babafemi said when the businessman was taken for a body scan, the result showed he ingested an illicit drug which proved to be cocaine.

“As a result, he was placed under excretion observation during which he expelled five big egg size wraps of cocaine weighing 400 grams,” he stated.

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Babafemi disclosed that the 51-year-old suspect confessed that he was to be paid upon successful delivery of the drug consignment in Thailand, adding that he needed the money to boost his fish importation business.

Babafemi said NDLEA operatives also intercepted a 26-year-old businessman Iwuagwu while coming from Brazil via Addis Ababa at the Lagos airport on Thursday, October 17.

He stated that the suspect was put under observation and excreted a pellet of cocaine weighing 22 grams.

“He however confessed that he ingested 30 wraps of the illicit drug in Brazil but excreted 29 pellets in Addis Ababa, where he handed them over to another person. The suspect revealed that he was to be paid N2.5 million for trafficking the drug,” the NDLEA spokesman added.

Commending the anti-narcotic officers for the arrests and seizures, the NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), stated that their operational successes, especially their balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts, were well appreciated.

The Star