NDLEA arrests Iran-bound woman with cocaine at Port Harcourt Airport

Ihensekhien Miracle Obehi was arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Port Harcourt International Airport in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, for wearing a hijab to conceal large quantities of cocaine in her stomach, private area, and fake bottom of her handbag while traveling to Iran.

According to a statement released by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, Obehi was apprehended on May 3 at the airport's Departure Hall while attempting to board a Qatar Airline flight to Iran via Doha, based on reliable intelligence. Obehi was wearing a hijab to evade security checks.

According to the complaint, she consumed 67 pellets of the Class A narcotic while a search revealed that she had placed three wraps of cocaine in her private area and two sizable packages concealed in fictitious compartments of her handbag.

She threw up the 67 wraps in her stomach on a few days when she was being watched.

She admitted that she had intended to swallow 70 cocaine pellets, but she was unable to do so after consuming the first 67 pieces. She so made the decision to put them in her intimate area.

"The three packages concealed in various areas of her body weigh a combined 2.523 kilograms," Babafemi stated.

According to the spokesperson, last Friday, MMIA agents also detained Campell Kaizra Kofi Johannes Slifer, a 22-year-old British national, who was traveling from Thailand via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight. He had two luggage with 35 packages of Loud, a potent cannabis strain that weighed 37.60 kg.

According to Babafemi, Campell, who stated that he had been found guilty twice in the UK of robbery and drug trafficking, was hired in London to go to Thailand and retrieve the illegal shipment and transport it to Nigeria.

According to the statement, on Wednesday, May 7, NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence in Niger State stopped a fuel tanker with the license plate ABJ 693 XU and three other vehicles along Suleja-Kaduna Road that were carrying 246 bags of skunk and a strain of cannabis totaling 3, 047 kg.

"Christopher Onyema, 47; Benedict Etineruba Young, 54; Chukwudi Ujue Jerry, 30; and Mohammed Abdullahi Danasabe are the four suspects who were arrested with the exhibits."

In addition, three vehicles were found among the suspects: a Honda Odyssey bus with the license plate YAB 667 CZ; a Gulf bus with the license plate GWA 125 TQ; and a Honda Odyssey bus with the license plate ABJ 230 CN.

Moreover, two suspects, Eze Chekube Emmanuel and Ike Samuel Chinyerem, were taken into custody by agents last Thursday at Oja Amukoko in Ijora, Lagos, along with 109,914 pills of nitrozepam, swinol, and tramadol.

In a bus at Gwantu, Sanga LGA, Kaduna State, on Tuesday, May 6, a 52.5 kg skunk was found in the possession of two suspects, Lukman Sabo Umar, 23, and Tukur Ammadu, 20. On Monday, May 5, NDLEA agents patrolling the Bode Saadu-Jebba expressway in Kwara State detained Rufai Nasiru with 45,400 225 mg tramadol pills.

According to Babafemi, on May 6, agency operatives patrolling the Bauchi-Gombe Road in Bauchi, State, stopped a Toyota Tundra vehicle with the license plate RBC 111 DW carrying 526 blocks of 505 kg skunk. The accused were Isaac Onogure, 37, and Ikechukwu Peter, 44.

Two suspects had 31 kegs of 775-liter codeine syrup found on them.

Hafizu Isa Uman, 34, and Ismail Shehu, 48, were apprehended by NDLEA agents during an operation on their hideout in Rijiyar Zaki, Kano, last Saturday. On Tuesday, officers at a Lagos courier company apprehended 1.1 kilograms of Loud cargo in a pillow that was coming from Thailand.

Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), the NDLEA's chairman and chief executive officer, commended the officers' efforts and those of their peers in the various commands throughout the nation.