The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted a 30-year-old Brazilian woman at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, with 30.09 kilograms of white heroin valued at over N3 billion in street value.
In a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja, the NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Mr Femi Babafemi, disclosed that the illicit drugs were ingeniously concealed inside factory-sealed coffee packs.
According to Babafemi, the suspect, a private security officer based in Brazil, was arrested on Friday, January 23, upon her arrival aboard Qatar Airways flight QR1431, following actionable intelligence.
A search of her two checked-in bags revealed 21 sealed packets of Brazilian coffee. However, further examination showed that the packs contained white powdery substances which later tested positive for heroin.
“The total weight of the recovered heroin was 30.09 kilograms, making it the single largest heroin seizure at the Abuja airport,” Babafemi said.
During preliminary interrogation, the suspect reportedly claimed she smuggled the heroin under the pretext of visiting Nigeria for a holiday.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, intercepted two outbound passengers on Tuesday, January 20, en route to Istanbul, Turkey, aboard a Turkish Airlines flight. The suspects were found with a combined total of 3,990 pills of tapentadol (250mg) and tramadol (225mg), concealed in food items packed in their luggage.
In a related operation, officers of the NDLEA Marine Command intercepted a wooden boat conveying 44 jumbo bags of “Ghana Loud,” a strain of cannabis weighing 1,848 kilograms, at Jakande Beach in Lekki, Lagos, in the early hours of Thursday, January 22.
Babafemi stated that the consignment had just arrived from Ghana when NDLEA operatives, acting on credible intelligence, raided the location around 1:00 a.m., recovered the drugs and seized the boat.
In another breakthrough, NDLEA operatives on Friday, January 23, arrested two suspects in connection with the seizure of two bags containing 140 packets of explosives destined for Kano and Kaduna. The items were intercepted from a commercial bus along the Kaduna–Zaria highway in Zaria.
Follow-up operations led to the arrest of one suspect at Karota Park, Kano, and another at Mando Park, Kaduna.
Additionally, an intelligence-driven raid at Kwangila in Zaria Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Thursday, January 22, resulted in the arrest of two suspected drug traffickers with 120 kilograms of skunk recovered from them.
The NDLEA reaffirmed that its commands and formations nationwide have continued intensive sensitisation under the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) initiative. Over the past week, awareness lectures were conducted in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities across several states, including Taraba, Osun, Imo, Benue and Katsina.
