Funke Busari
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has recorded remarkable success with the arrests of suspected drug traffickers smuggling narcotics to other countries.
Chairman/CEO of NDLEA, Brig. General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) commended the offensive action of the men and officers of the two airports Commands to secure Nigeria from the damaging effects of the drug scourge with regards to the arrests.
The NDLEA boss made the disclosure following the arrest of a Chadian lady, Vivien Tarmadji at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, by the operatives of the NDLEA, while trying to board an Ethiopian airline flight 911 enroute Addis Ababa-Italy with 234.35 grams of heroin concealed in her private part.
The trafficker who runs a saloon business in Italy since 2016 upon her relocation to the country via Libya was nabbed by vigilant narcotics agents during an outward clearance of the airline at the boarding gate after being scanned.
According to her, she was contacted by a man who called her from Italy to collect the drug from one man who delivered the illicit substance to her in a hotel she lodged in Lagos early in the morning before she took her flight to Abuja same day for onward journey to Italy.
Vivien further claimed that the man brought 50 wraps of heroin for her to swallow but she couldn’t, and as such she decided to insert 18 wraps into her private part and returned the remaining to the man that brought the drug to her in the hotel.
She explained that she came into Nigeria to raise money to pay for her house and shop rents which had expired in Italy, as life has been so difficult since the coming in of COVID-19 pandemic.
She said the owner of the drug was to pay her 10,000 Euro on successful delivery of the drug to Italy.
Another suspected trafficker, Okojie James who hails from Oredo local government area of Edo state has also been arrested while boarding Turkish airline flight enroute Abuja-Istanbul-Cyprus.
Okojie was arrested while in possession of a number of illicit drugs including 1. 549kg of Cannabis Sativa; 223.80grams of Tramadol; 192.34grams of Rohypnol; 214.05 grams of Flunitrazepam.
All the drugs which were concealed in tins of Bournvita and milk, packed in a bag of foodstuff were recovered from him.
During interrogation, the suspect claimed his friend, Mr. Elvis who resides in Cyprus asked him to collect the luggage for him.
He narrated that Elvis’ sister sent the luggage to him in Abuja from Benin through a transport company, Big Joe Motors.
He said he was into Shawarma and Indomie business in Benin before Elvis invited him to Cyprus claiming that he got him admission to school there.
The Commander, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja Command of the NDLEA, Kabir Sani Tsakuwa, said while Okojie James was arrested last Saturday, Vivien was nabbed on Tuesday 23rd March, 2021.
He added that both suspects would soon face prosecution.
In a related development, NDLEA operatives at the NAHCO export shed of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja Lagos on Wednesday 24th March seized an abandoned five cartons of green leaves suspected to be KHAT with a gross weight of 105.70 kilograms.
