Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a Brazil returnee for ingesting 60 wraps of cocaine at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
The suspect was arrested on January 21 during an inward clearance of passengers travelling from Sao Paulo, Brazil, through Addis Ababa.
NDLEA’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, stated on Sunday in Abuja that the suspect initially refused to undergo a body scan, raising health concerns in a desperate bid to evade arrest.
He added that the suspect, however, accepted the offer to be placed on excretion observation.
“Shortly after he was ushered into NDLEA’s observatory, he excreted the first set of cocaine pellets, after which he expelled a total of 60 wraps of the drug weighing 1.279kg in five excretions.
“In his statement, the suspect claimed that he ingested the consignment in Brazil and was to discharge everything at the airport in Addis Ababa.
“He could only excrete 15 pellets, which he handed over to another member of his syndicate before his connecting flight to Nigeria was called,’’ Mr Babafemi stated.
He stated also that a 29-year-old male suspect was arrested in the Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano State on January 25 with 271kg of Indian hemp.
This followed the seizure of an abandoned 28.1kg of Indian hemp in the Rijiyar Lemo area of the state on January 24.
“Another suspect, a 24-year-old, was nabbed at Kotun Wambai, Yan Awaki, area of Kano on Jan. 26 with 600 bottles of codeine-based syrup.
“A total of 1,306 blocks of cannabis weighing 886kg seized by the police in the Kwanar Dangora area of Kano State were transferred to the agency on January 24,’’ Mr Babafemi stated.
