The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), says its officers intercepted a human trafficker with cannabis at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos, last Wednesday,
The human trafficker, Mathew Bassey, tried exporting illicit drug to Dubai, United Arab Emirate, by planting the banned substance in the luggage of an orphan, Ms. Peter Gift Eno, recruited for a phantom job in the Arab nation.
This was diclosed in a statement on Sunday by the director, media and advocacy, NDLEA, Mr. Femi Babafemi.
He said Bassey, 29, from Oron LGA, Akwa Ibom State, was arrested last Wednesday, following the interception of Eno, at the departure hall of the Lagos airport.
“When Eno’s luggage was searched, 50 parcels of cannabis (2.80kg) concealed in food items were discovered, while there were discrepancies between the age she declared and the date of birth on her international passport,” the statement reads.
“Further interview revealed that the human trafficker, who recruited and brought her to the airport, Mathew Bassey, was still lurking around the airport, waiting for her departure and he was promptly tracked and arrested.
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“Investigations ahowed that the victim, who hails from the same Oron LGA of Akwa Ibom State as Bassey, recently lost her mother and, as a result, made it easy for Bassey to recruit her with the promise of securing her a job in Dubai, UAE. It was further discovered that the recruiter leveraged on the victim’s naivety and planted drugs in her bag for onward delivery to his contact in Dubai.”
In a related development, the desperate bid by a drug trafficker, Aloysius Ajuruchukwu Onyekwe (a.k.a Kelvin) to travel by road to Algeria through Sokoto state with ingested 47 wraps of cocaine in his stomach has been frustrated by NDLEA operatives who intercepted him in Ibadan, Oyo state, following intelligence shared by the Department of State Security (DSS).
Babafemi said Onyekwe, 26, who hails from Owerri West LGA, Imo state, was arrested penultimate Sunday, at Ojo park Ibadan, where he went to board a vehicle en route Sokoto to Algeria. He said the suspect was traveling with an 18-year-old lady, Blessing Nwoke.
Babafemi said: “The father of a 10-month-old child, who passed out the 47 pellets of cocaine in five excretions confessed that he began his journey to Algeria from the Cele area of Okota, Lagos, where he ingested the illicit drug, weighing 1.1kg.”
Also, in Oyo state, no fewer than 1,900 tablets of tramadol 225mg were seized from a drug dealer, Mustapha Ijabula, 22, who was arrested in a Yola, Adamawa-bound commercial vehicle stopped for routine search along Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
He hails from Mubi area of Adamawa state.
In Akwa Ibom state, a trans-border trafficker, Fonkou Dassi, 31, was last Friday, arrested with 6,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg weighing 3kg, by officers of Marine Unit of the agency, when a commercial boat he boarded was intercepted and searched on his way to Cameroon. The suspect concealed the recovered drugs inside an indomie noodles cartoon.
In the same vein, a wanted drug dealer, Uduak Edidiong Samuel, 29, was arrested last Tuesday, after attending a court proceeding where his wife was undergoing trial for another drug case. The suspect had abandoned a cannabis sativa exhibit weighing 9kg when his house was searched on June 27, and had been on the run since then. During his arrest last Tuesday, Uduak was still found in possession of a wrap of skunk.
In Edo state, a notorious drug dealer, Beauty Dauda, 27, was arrested with various quantities of meth, heroin, cannabis and crack cocaine in a densely populated slum, along Lagos bypass, Benin City. She was arrested last Wednesday, after NDLEA operatives were able to break through the ring of protection often provided to her by hoodlums and touts in the area.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), has commended the officers and men of the MMIA, Oyo, Akwa Ibom and Edo commands of the agency for staying vigilant and proactive in their areas of responsibility. He charged them and their colleagues across the country not to rest on their oars.