NDLEA intercepts Indian lady ‘with 72 parcels of heroin in chocolate wraps’ at Kano airport
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says its operatives have intercepted a 42-year-old Indian lady, Neetu Neetu, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, MAKIA, Kano, with 72 parcels of heroin factory sealed in wafer wraps and packaged as chocolates.
Femi Babafemi, the spokesperson of NDLEA, said in a statement on Sunday that the class A drug consignment weighing 11 kilograms was recovered from Neetu’s luggage after a thorough search, following processed credible intelligence, during an inward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR1431 from Bangkok, Thailand via Vietnam and Doha at the arrival hall of the Kano airport on March 14.
He said the arrest signified a growing attempt by drug trafficking organisations to hire white ladies and foreign nationals to move illicit drugs through the Nigerian borders.
In another interdiction operation in Kano, NDLEA officers on March 20 arrested a 45-year-old suspect, Michael Ogundele, with a 50-litre steel gas cylinder at Gadar Tamburawa, along Zaria- Kano road.
Based on credible intelligence, welding tools were later used to cut the giant cylinder where 50,000 pills of tramadol 225mg were extracted.
While Sunday Ogar, 40, was nabbed at Gunduwawa area of Kano on March 19 with 27kg skunk, a strain of cannabis, and a female suspect Khadijah Abdullahi, 40, was arrested with 424 bottles of codeine-based syrup at Lungun Bulala Yalwa area of the state on March 18.
In Lagos, the duo of Olumuyiwa Kolawole and Samod Adisa were arrested with 67.5kg skunk in Mushin just as 100.8kg of same psychoactive substance was recovered from the store of two fleeing suspects in Anifowoshe area of Mushin while Isah Idris was arrested in Apapa with 4.5kg skunk; 600grams of tramadol 225mg and 30litres of codeine syrup on Tuesday 18th March.
Another suspect, Yahaya Mohamed, was arrested same day in Ikotun area of the state with different quantities of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
Across the country, NDLEA commands and formations continued to intensify their war against drug abuse (WADA), social advocacy sensitisation engagements in schools, markets, motor parts, work places and worship centres in the past week.
These include: WADA sensitisation lecture to students and staff of Chrisland School, Ikeja, Lagos; Hakimi Secondary School, Mokwa, Niger state; Marist Comprehensive College, Nteje, Anambra state; Ikole City College, Ikole Ekiti, Ekiti state; Government Day Secondary School, Sunane, Sokoto state; and Government Day Secondary School, Jada, Adamawa state, among others.
While commending the officers and men of MAKIA, Lagos, and Kano commands of the agency for the arrests and seizures, Buba Marwa, NDLEA chairman, noted the balance in drug supply and demand reduction efforts of all the formations nationwide.
Marwa charged the operatives not to relent.
