…As NDLEA foils attempt to import heroin into Nigeria
Operatives of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA, have foiled still tempts by two drug kingpins to smuggle consignments of heroin through the Port Harcourt International Airport and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, into Nigeria.
Femi Babafemi, the director, media & advocacy NDLEA headquarters, Abuja, in a statement on Sunday, said one of the kingpins who uses dual identities to aid his cross border movements, has a Nigerian passport with his original name: Onyekwonike Elochuckwu, 30.
The suspect is also said to have a Sierra Leonean identity , with a different name: Kargbo Mohamed.
He was intercepted by NDLEA officers with his Sierra Leonean passport on Sunday 2nd February 2025 at the Port Harcourt airport, Rivers state during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight from Doha through Abuja to Port Harcourt.
He was subsequently taken for body scan which confirmed he ingested illicit drugs and thereafter placed under excretion observation during which he expelled a total of 62 wraps of heroin in five excretions, weighing 1.348 kilograms.
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Investigation reveals Onyekwonike Elochuckwu, (alias Kargbo Mohamed Foday) alternates his two identities for different drug trafficking missions between Thailand, Pakistan, Iran and West African countries, according to the NDLEA spokesman
The suspect confessed that he went into the full time into the illicit drug trade in 2017 when his clothing and shoe business went down.
According to the NDLEA, the second kingpin, named James Chinoso, 48, was arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Saturday 1st February upon his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
” After a body scan confirmed illicit drug in his system, he was placed under excretion observation during which he egested 63 wraps of heroin with a total weight of 909 grams.
“Chinoso had left Lagos to Madagascar on 26th January 2025 and returned via Addis Ababa after spending a week. He claimed to have gone into the criminal trade after his phone accessories business in Liberia collapsed.”
The NDLEA operatives equally intercepted two parcels of 2.82 kilograms of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis imported from the United States with Lagos as destination, during the period.
The drugs were intercepted by NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, DOGI, at a courier firm in Lagos on Thursday 6th February. In another interdiction operation same day but in a different logistics company in Lagos, anti-narcotics officers intercepted 80 ampoules of pentazocine injection 225grams concealed in cartons heading to Canada.
Read also:NDLEA nabs Vietnam-bound bizman with 88 wraps of cocaine in NAIA
“In Kano, NDLEA operatives on Monday 3rd February arrested the duo of Usaini Salisu and Yahaya Mu’azu, both 23 years old, at Gadar Tamburawa along Zaria road, where 15,396 pills of tramadol were recovered from a gas cylinder used to conceal the consignment.
” In another operation same day, operatives nabbed a female suspect, Choima Okeke, 35, with 27 blocks of skunk, a strain of cannabis weighing 15kg, at Sabon Gari area of Kano”
The anti- narcotics agency’s efforts to tackle the menace of illicit drugs also paid off as consignment of 12,800 pills of tramadol 250mg going to Shuwarin in Jigawa state, was intercepted by NDLEA officers on patrol along Kabba-Obajana highway in Kogi state on Saturday 8th February, with a suspect, Salisu Basiru, 33, arrested.
Similarly, the agency said no fewer than 65 parcels of Colorado, a strong synthetic strain of cannabis with a total weight of 1.600kg also heading to Jigawa state, were recovered from another suspect, Rufai Hassan, 32 at the same check point same day.
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