A Brazil returnee, Iroegbute Ejike Francis, 46, has been apprehended by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, for allegedly smuggling 4kg cocaine soaked in towels and stuffed in his hand luggage into the country.
Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA spokesman in a statement on Sunday in Abuja explained that the suspect was on Thursday, 24th November, 2022, arrested on his arrival from Brazil-Doha-Abuja on a Qatar Airline flight.
The statement further explained that the apprehension of Lawal Lateef Oyenuga, a 56-year-old trafficker by the operatives of NDLEA at the weekend, disrupted the activities of a major cocaine syndicate in Lagos.
According to the statement, the suspect wanted to go and deliver 400 grams of drug in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia concealed in a pair of palm sandals.
Wasiu Sanni Gbolahan, popularly known as ‘Teacher’, who recruits mules for the cartel, a wanted notorious kingpin was also arrested.
The NDLEA spokesman explained that the agency’s operatives attached to the screening point of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, intercepted Oyenuga with a pair of black palm sandals packed in the luggage he was going with to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airways flight.
According to the statement, a thorough examination of the sandals revealed they were used to conceal two parcels of cocaine weighing 400 grams.
This is barely a week after a 56-year-old widow and mother of four, Mrs Ajisegiri Kehinde Sidika was arrested at the airport over her attempt to traffic 400 grams of cocaine concealed in her footwear to Makkah, Saudi Arabia on board a Qatar Airways flight, according to the statement.
Oyenuga claimed that he was recruited to traffic the drug by ‘Teacher’, saying that he was first given some pellets of cocaine to swallow and when he couldn’t do that, he was given the ones concealed in the palm sandals.
He said in order to raise money to pay an examination fee for his daughter who is in Senior Secondary School class 3, he resorted to the criminal activity.
‘Teacher’ has been linked to some previous attempts to traffic cocaine to Saudi Arabia and Dubai, UAE, according to the Agency’s database.
