Two Pakistani businessmen, Asif Muhammed, 45 years and Hussain Naveed, 57 years have been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos with eight kilograms of cocaine concealed in a public address system while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Lahole, Pakistan via Doha.
The suspects who hold Nigerian residence permits suspected to be fake are frequent travellers to Nigeria under the guise of doing textile business.
They were arrested on Saturday, November 5 at the Lagos airport barely a week after they came to Nigeria, that is, Sunday, October 30.
The operatives also arrested a blind man, Bukar Haruna, 52 years and his son Saka Haruna, 30 years in Katsina State while they were heading to Niger Republic with 20.5kg cannabis and 10 grams of Exol-5.
They hail from Damagram area of Niger Republic, according to Femi Babafemi, the Director, Media & Advocacy of the anti-drug agency on Sunday.
Another businessmen who have been on the run for months over their involvement in drug trafficking have been arrested by anti-narcotic officers assigned to track them.
Nnebo Ikechukwu Christopher who has been wanted for his role in the importation of 40 cartons containing 346,800 pills of Co-codamol, a brand of paracetamol with Codeine seized at the cargo wing of the MMIA local airport in Lagos, since March 2022, was arrested on Thursday 3rd November. A suspect trailed by operatives was arrested in the person of Omeje Oliver.
According to NDLEA, the automobile parts dealer, also known as David Mark, who was on the radar of the operatives since April was eventually arrested on Monday, October 31, in Enugu where he fled to after abandoning his business at Aspanda, Trade Fair Complex in Lagos.
He is being held in connection with the seizure of 600 grams of heroin concealed inside soles of lady’s footwears going to Liberia on April 16. On the same day Omeje was nabbed, operatives at the SAHCO export shed of the Lagos airport intercepted 550 grams of cannabis loud concealed in machine parts going to Dubai, UAE, while the sender, Ogbure Victor Ifeanyi was later arrested.
