At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, significant consignments of illegal substances, in particular cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and ephedrine, that were intended for Europe have been stopped.
This was revealed in a statement released on Sunday by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), which claimed to have found four used cars concealed within a container containing 75.75kg of cannabis indica that originated in Montreal, Canada.
According to Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokeswoman, Iwuozor Chinedu, a Nigerian living in Athens, Greece, is at the top of the list of those who have been detained thus far in relation with the seizures.
On Friday, February 3, he was removed from an Ethiopian Airlines flight after NDLEA officers on the tarmac team stopped two bags during a secondary check exercise at the bottom of the plane.
“He was debarked from an Ethiopian airline flight on Friday 3rd February after officers in the tarmac team of NDLEA intercepted two bags during a secondary check exercise at the foot of the aircraft,” the statement read.
“When the bags were searched in the presence of Chinedu and other airport stakeholders, two big pellets wrapped with foil papers and some sprinkles of pepper were recovered from each of the two sides of one of the bags. The pellets were used to construct false walls at the sides of the bag.
“The two parcels contained substances that tested positive to cocaine and heroin with a gross weight of 1.30kgs and 900grams respectively,” he disclosed.
Babafemi further stated that during the initial interview, Chinedu stated he had been to Nigeria three months prior in order to perform a procedure that he felt uneasy performing in Athens.
Similarly, 800 grams of skunk were found hidden in two small radio sets that Mrs. Sylvester Gloria Onome was bringing to Dubai, United Arab Emirate, and she was detained by NDLEA agents at the NAHCO export shed of the airport on Monday, January 30.
A shipment headed to Congo Kinshasa that contained 111 bottles of body lotion and 24.50 kg of ephedrine, a chemical precursor and key element in the production of methamphetamine, was also seized by agents on the same day, he added.
Following the first detention of two freight brokers, the package, according to the NDLEA spokesman, was eventually tracked down to a trader at the Alaba trade fair complex in Lagos’ Ojo neighborhood, Onyekachukwu Uduekwelu.
He disclosed that another housewife, Mrs. Okpara Chizoba Victoria, was detained on Friday, January 27 at her home in the Ijesha neighborhood of Lagos after 300 grams of skunk were discovered concealed in a bag of crabs that she was shipping to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The seizure comes just one month after agents at the Tincan harbor stopped a shipment of 24.5kg of cannabis indica that was hidden inside old cars from Canada.
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