The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two men returning from Brazil and a businesswoman at the Lagos airport for trafficking heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine concealed in their bodies and clothing.
NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, disclosed in a statement on Sunday that the suspects, identified as Ofoma Sunday, 46, and Ukachukwu Ikechukwu, excreted 116 wraps of illicit drugs after days in observatory custody.
According to him, Ofoma was arrested on September 16 upon arrival from Brazil after a body scan confirmed he had ingested hard drugs. He later expelled 111 wraps of heroin weighing 1.452kg in eight rounds.
A follow-up operation led to the arrest of 55-year-old Nweke Chukwudi at a hotel in Amuwo Odofin, Lagos, where he was waiting to oversee the recovery of the consignment.
In a separate operation, Ikechukwu was intercepted on September 19 while arriving aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Brazil via Addis Ababa.
A body scan also confirmed drug ingestion. Under observation, he expelled five wraps of cocaine weighing 145 grams.
He reportedly confessed that he had originally concealed nine wraps of cocaine but was forced to discard two during transit due to severe anal pain.
Babafemi added that Ikechukwu, who once lived in the United States before being deported in 2022, admitted that financial desperation pushed him into drug trafficking.
Similarly, a 46-year-old businesswoman, Okolonkwo Ebere Theresa, was arrested on September 14 while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Doha.
NDLEA officers, working with aviation security, discovered two parcels of methamphetamine weighing 1.40kg hidden in her butt pad underwear. She claimed she was recruited into the illicit trade despite running a used-clothes and POS business in Enugu.
Beyond the Lagos arrests, the agency also intercepted multiple drug consignments across Nigeria.
At the NAHCO export shed, operatives stopped a cargo bound for Hong Kong containing 40 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 2.30kg, while another shipment of cocaine hidden in phone chargers and packaged for New Zealand was seized from a courier firm.
In Adamawa State, NDLEA operatives recovered no fewer than 233,800 pills of tramadol during three raids, while in Yobe, 14,000 capsules of the opioid were intercepted on the Damaturu–Potiskum road.
In Taraba, operatives arrested a 28-year-old suspect with 25.5kg of cannabis, while in Edo, two cannabis farms spanning 4.53 hectares were destroyed with an estimated yield of over 11,000kg.
Babafemi said the series of arrests and seizures demonstrated the agency’s resolve to dismantle drug cartels and frustrate traffickers exploiting Nigeria’s borders for illicit trade.
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