Barely one week after the new Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa vowed to dismantle drug trafficking cartels across the country, the agency has made huge seizures of cocaine and heroin worth over N30 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
One of the seizures, 26.840 kilograms of cocaine is the biggest single seizure from an individual in the past 15 years.
A top official of the agency said: “On the 27th of January 2021, at about 1320hours, during the inward clearance of Ethiopian Airline passengers at the E-arrival hall of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, a female passenger (names withheld), who arrived Nigeria from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Addis Ababa, was intercepted by NDLEA operatives.
“As a standard operating procedure, all passengers to and from high risk countries are always profiled using passengers’ manifest. It happened that the above-named suspect was targeted. Consequently, she was taken to NDLEA office at the Airport, where her bags were searched thoroughly, and in the process, whitish powdery substances were found concealed inside 16 pieces of duvet contained in her two travel bags.
“Field test was conducted on the recovered substances and proved positive to Cocaine and weighed 26.850kilograms. The suspect who is a hair stylist and based in Brazil was interviewed and she confessed to have agreed to smuggle the hard drug for the sum of Two Million Naira (N2,000,000) only. Although she refused to disclose the names of her associates, but she mentioned that she was asked to hand over the drugs to another person. The street value of this singular seizure is put at over N21billion.”
The official further disclosed that the development came on the heels of a similar one recorded two days earlier at the airport, precisely on January 25, 2021 when a red left-over luggage was declared to the NDLEA operatives as a left over at the E-arrival hall after the inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian airline.
“Based on information on the luggage tag, the luggage arrived Nigeria from Sao Paulo, Brazil, a destination classified as high-risk country going by records and trends of arrest and seizures.
“Subsequently, the bag was transferred to the NDLEA ‘Legal Seat’ being the administrative office at the passenger terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, for detention. While this was going on, the NDLEA Commander at the MMIA, Ahmadu Garba received an intelligence report of a purported plan to clear a consignment containing hard drug through the Lagos airport. Coincidentally, the details sent matched the bag earlier detained by the operatives at the Lagos airport.”
Similarly, other seizures were made at the airport.
An official at the national headquarters of the NDLEA in Abuja, who confirmed the development said the chairman of the agency, Gen. Marwa had already commended the MMIA, Lagos Commander, Ahmadu Garba and his team for their efforts and following up on his directives at a meeting with all the commanders in charge of the 36 states, FCT and special commands.
