NIGERIA: China-Bound Businesswoman Arrested with Cocaine as NDLEA Seizes N12.3bn Drug Consignment

By Ameenat Hamzat, Lagos, Nigeria

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested a businesswoman attempting to travel to China with 7.5 kilograms of cocaine concealed in her luggage, while also intercepting 4,959 kilograms of Canadian Loud cannabis worth 12.3 billion naira at the Apapa Port in Lagos.

NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, said the 38-year-old suspect, Iwebema Ogechi Peace, was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport while preparing to board a Qatar Airways flight to Beijing.

Babafemi said, “A search of her check-in luggage led to the discovery of four large parcels of cocaine concealed in false bottom professionally created in her bag. The parcels of the class A drug found hidden in the bag have a combined weight of 7.5 kilograms.”

In another operation, the agency recovered 4,959 kilograms of Canadian Loud concealed inside a 40-foot container at Apapa Port after tracking the shipment for more than four weeks from Canada.

Babafemi said, “A total of 4,959 kilograms of the illicit drug consignment worth Twelve Billion Three Hundred and Ninety Seven Million Five Hundred Thousand Naira in street value were recovered from the container during a joint examination.”

The agency also dismantled a syndicate accused of planting illicit drugs in the luggage of unsuspecting passengers at motor parks, leading to the arrest of three suspects after a methamphetamine consignment was intercepted in Abuja.

In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives arrested two Beninese nationals and a Nigerian after recovering 558,900 pills of Tramadol 250 milligrams concealed in a fabricated compartment of a truck entering Nigeria from Benin Republic.

Commending officers involved in the operations, NDLEA Chairman, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd.), charged them and other personnel across the country “not to rest on their oars” in the fight against illicit drug trafficking.