The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 35-year-old lady, Chidinma Agbazue for attempting to export 20 parcels of cannabis sativa weighing 10.70 kilograms concealed in African salad popularly called Abacha and dried vegetables to Doha, Qatar through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
The agency’s officers at the Lagos airport working in partnership with men of the Department of State Security had on Thursday 28th March intercepted Chidinma, an outbound passenger from Lagos to Doha, on Qatar Airways during clearance of passengers at the screening point of terminal 11 of the MMIA.
Its Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi,.in a statement issued said preliminary investigation revealed that Chidinma was based in Qatar but returned to Nigeria last December for Christmas celebration.
He said the culprit revealed that in preparation for her return to Doha, she was lodged at Club Dice Hotel in Ikotun area of Lagos where the consignment was handed over to her for trafficking to the Arab country.
Babafemi noted that two suspects: Monday Okeke and Chigozie Emeka were on Tuesday, 26th March arrested by NDLEA operatives in Oniwaya, Yaba and Agege area of Lagos, where they recovered from them 842,560 pills of opioids especially tramadol in addition to 15 litres of codeine syrup and 596 grams of Molly.
He added that an attempt by Okeke to bribe the NDLEA officers with N5 million cash was rebuffed while the money was documented as part of exhibits to prosecute the suspects in court.
Babafemi revealed that in Bayelsa, the.ooeratives arrested the trio of Ebuka Eze, 31; Ugochukwu Okoro, 44; and Kingsley Uzim, 27, for attempting to smuggle opioids including codeine, molly, tramadol and diazepam weighing a total of 73.425 kilograms to the creeks in Southern Ijaw area of the state.
He said the suspects were arrested on Wednesday 27th March by NDLEA operatives at Swali jetty, Yenagoa where Ebuka and Ugochukwu were arrested while Uzim was nabbed at Amasoma in a follow up operation.
He added that the drugs were concealed in jumbo sacks and conveyed to the jetty in a tricycle.