Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a woman, Ihensekhien Obehi, for attempting to smuggle cocaine to Iran using a highly unusual concealment method involving her private parts, stomach, and handbag.
Obehi, who disguised herself in a hijab, was apprehended on Sunday, May 3, 2025, at the Port Harcourt International Airport while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight en route to Iran via Doha.
According to a statement by NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, the suspect was caught with three wraps of cocaine inserted into her private part, two parcels concealed in the false bottom of her handbag, and 67 pellets of the drug she had swallowed.
“She was placed under excretion observation, during which she expelled all 67 wraps in four separate excretions over several days.
“She confessed that she was meant to ingest 70 pellets, but after swallowing 67, she could not continue and opted to insert the remaining three into her private part,” Babafemi said.
The total weight of the cocaine retrieved from various parts of her body was put at 2.523 kilograms.
In a related development, Babafemi disclosed that NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, intercepted a 22-year-old British national, Campbell Slifer, on Friday, May 9, with two suitcases containing 35 parcels of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis, weighing 37.6 kilograms.
Slifer, a previously convicted drug trafficker and robber in the United Kingdom, reportedly told investigators he was recruited in London to collect the drugs in Thailand and deliver them to Nigeria.
Elsewhere in Niger State, NDLEA officers intercepted a fuel tanker and three other vehicles conveying 246 bags of skunk weighing 3,047 kilograms along the Suleja–Kaduna Road. Four suspects – Christopher Onyema, 47; Benedict Etineruba Young, 54; Chukwudi Ujue Jerry, 30; and Mohammed Abdullahi Danasabe – were arrested.
The agency said the intercepted vehicles included a Honda Odyssey with registration number YAB 667 CZ, a Gulf bus marked GWA 125 TQ, another Honda Odyssey with plate number ABJ 230 CN, and the fuel tanker used to convey the drugs.
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives also intercepted 1.1 kilograms of Loud hidden inside a pillow shipped from Thailand at a courier service hub.
Meanwhile, in Bauchi State, officers on patrol along the Bauchi–Gombe Road on Tuesday, May 6, intercepted a Toyota Tundra jeep marked RBC 111 DW carrying 526 blocks of skunk weighing 505 kilograms.
Two suspects, Isaac Onogure, 37, and Ikechukwu Peter, 44, were arrested in connection with the seizure.
Similarly, in Kano, 31 kegs containing 775 litres of codeine syrup were recovered from two suspects – Hafizu Isa Uman, 34, and Ismail Shehu, 48 – during a raid on their hideout in the Rijiyar Zaki area on Saturday, May 10.
Babafemi reaffirmed the NDLEA’s resolve to intensify efforts in curbing the trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs across the country.
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