Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have arrested a 50-year-old businessman, Iheanacho Osuoha, at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, for ingesting 90 wraps of cocaine.
Iheanacho was intercepted on Wednesday at the arrival hall of the Enugu airport during the inbound screening of passengers arriving from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
Also, the anti-drug agency said it dismantled a drug syndicate in the country led by a Chinese identified as Tianzhen Yen, aka Jackie, for aiding and possessing 4.3 grams of cocaine and others.
A statement by the agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, said Iheanacho’s arrest came following months of intelligence and surveillance.
“He was subsequently placed on excretion observation during which he egested 90 pellets of cocaine weighing 2.019 kilograms in seven excretions. Investigation reveals that the suspect, who operates a phone and accessories business in Lagos and Gabon, Central Africa, travelled by road from Gabon to Douala, Cameroon from where he took a flight to Addis Ababa where he swallowed the pellets of cocaine while in transit and thereafter continued his journey to Enugu with Lagos as his final destination, “Babafemi added.
The NDLEA PRO noted that the suspect deliberately complicated his movement to distort traces of his travel history, unknown to him that he had been on the watchlist for the past three months.
“In his statement, Osuoha said he desperately needed the money from the criminal drug trade to boost his declining phone and accessories business,” he added.
Similarly, Babafemi noted that Jackie was arrested by the operatives after intercepting a bus driven by Yakubu Mark going to Ghana, adding that 750 grams of cocaine were found with the driver.
He said, “Another drug syndicate operated by a Chinese man, 58-year-old Tianzhen Yen (alias Jackie), has been dismantled by the NDLEA operatives following his arrest at his hotel in the Ikeja area of Lagos.
“Officers of the Seme Special Area Command of the agency had on Thursday, November 21, intercepted a 40-year-old suspect, Yakubu Emmanuel Mar,k, in a commercial bus going to Ghana at the Gbaji checkpoint along the Badagry-Seme Expressway based on credible intelligence.
“When he was searched, a total of 750 grams of cocaine were found in his bag. A swift follow-up operation was organised to trace and arrest the kingpin behind the trans-border drug trafficking syndicate, who turned out to be a Chinese citizen, Tianzhen Yen.
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