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The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on
Monday disclosed that it intercepted a bag containing 3.2kg cocaine
concealed in a factory mode.

Disclosing the name of the suspect who imported the
drug into the country as Onwuzurigbo Chibuike Gerald, 27, the agency
added that it arrested six other drug peddlers that attempted to
smuggle narcotics at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA),
Lagos.

According to the agency, Mr. Gerald was apprehended
on his way from Brazil in an Emirate flight on April 4, and a total of
9.39kg narcotics were seized comprising 7.46kg of cocaine, 920g of
heroin and 1.01kg of methamphetamine.

“Onwuzurigbo Chijioke Gerald who claimed to have
travelled to Brazil to buy clothes confessed to the crime,” said
Mitchell Ofoyeju, spokesperson for the agency. “He said that a man he
met in Brazil asked him to bring a bag to Nigeria for a fee of
N500,000.” Hamza Umar, MMIA commander for the agency gave the names of
the other six traffickers as Okeke Isaac Nnamdi, 33, who ingested 90
wraps of cocaine weighing 1.17kg; Chukwuemenam Cornelius Obiefuna, 45,
ingested 60 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.01kg; and Okpara Jude
Iheanacho, 41, swallowed 61 wraps of cocaine weighing 1kg.

Others include Onyeukwu Anele Ndubisi, 40, who
ingested 78 pieces of heroin weighing 920g; Clement John Anderson, 34,
swallowed 67 pieces of cocaine weighing 1.15kg; and Adenuga Francis
Kehinde, 27, took in 90 wraps of cocaine weighing 940g.

The agency’s spokesperson disclosed that the
27-year-old Francis Kehinde, who lives in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, was
recruited into drug smuggling through online chatting, adding that he
was apprehended on April 12 during screening of passengers on Arik Air
flight to London.

“He was to be paid 2,000 pounds with a promise of scholarship to further his education,” said Mr. Ofoyeju.

How they were nabbed

Explaining how the suspects were nabbed, Mr. Ofoyeju
disclosed that Okeke Isaac Nnamdi, a worker in Spain, was arrested on
April 3, at about 8.30pm while trying to board an Iberia flight to
Madrid.

The suspect in a statement said “I met a man in Spain
to lend me some money for my upkeep but he rather asked me to smuggle
drugs for 5,000 Euros. He gave my phone number to a man in Lagos that
took me to a hotel at Isolo where I ingested 90 wraps of cocaine.”
Chukwuemenam Cornelius Obiefuna, who ingested 60 pieces of drugs on his
way to Osaka, Japan, was arrested on April 10, during screening of
passengers on Qatar airline flight to Doha from where he is to proceed
to his destination.

After a field test of the substance by the
anti-narcotics agency on the suspect, the drug was found to be
methamphetamine with a weight of 1.01kg.

According to the suspect, his contacts deceived him
into the act, as they refused to let him know that the substance he was
to deliver was hard drugs.

“They said that it was ice used in the manufacture of
diamonds. My number was given to a lady in Lagos who booked
accommodation for me and gave me the drugs from her bag. She bought my
ticket and gave me $1,500 as part payment. The total money they would
have paid me was $4,000,” he said.

The agency further disclosed that the other two
suspects were nabbed on the same Iberia flight from Brazil at the Lagos
airport with different hard substances tested to be cocaine and heroin,
adding that all suspects will be prosecuted by the court.