NDLEA intercepts N8bn cocaine at Lagos airport, arrests suspect

The drug weighs 27.95 kilogrammes with a street value in excess of N8billion.NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday said a Brazil-based drug kingpin, Ejiofor Felix Enwereaku, was nabbed on May 14, 2021.Enwereaku allegedly imported the drug, using an organised criminal gang which specialises in tagging and planting drugs in innocent travellers’ luggage.Narcotic agents at the MMIA had, on May 8, intercepted a bag that arrived from GRU, Brazil via Addis Ababa.The baggage with tag no. ET331199 arrived through an Ethiopian airline flight but was disclaimed by an arriving passenger.On May 9, a day after NDLEA operatives secured the bag, a man showed up to make an inquiry. He was promptly arrested.

The bag was opened in the presence of the arriving passenger and the man who came to demand the release.The follow-up sting operation led to the arrest of Enwereaku, the prime suspect, upon his May 14 arrival from Addis Ababa onboard an Ethiopian Airline flight.He confessed to have been contracted by his Ethiopian associate, a notorious drug baron, to claim and push out the consignment in Lagos.Enwereaku admitted to have paid the $24,500 bribe in three tranches to compromise NDLEA officers.The first was $10,000 delivered through his representative in Lagos, another $10,000 dollars via his First Bank account, and the third tranche of $4,500 at the point of his arrest.“His group is suspected to be responsible for recruiting traffickers to move illicit drugs to various destinations using Nigeria as their transit location and also planting drugs in the luggage of innocent travellers,” the statement added.

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