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The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, for allegedly concealing 5.75 kilograms of heroin in her luggage while travelling with her three-year-old son in an attempt to evade security checks.
NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi disclosed the arrest in a statement on Sunday, describing it as one of several major drug interdictions carried out by the agency in recent days.
According to Babafemi, the suspect, identified as Will Jessica Ann, was arrested on Monday, July 6, during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR1433 from Doha.
Babafemi said the suspect initially attempted to distance herself from the incriminating luggage.
“Though she initially denied travelling with check-in bags, after operatives were able to quickly establish that the two bags containing the drugs had tags which tallied with the claim tags attached to her passport, she recanted and admitted ownership of the bags, adding that she forgot she checked in the two bags,” he said.
The agency said a search of the luggage uncovered 14 large blocks of heroin weighing 5.75 kilograms.
Babafemi alleged that the suspect deliberately travelled with her three-year-old son to reduce suspicion and avoid thorough security screening.
He added that preliminary investigations linked the suspect to an international drug trafficking syndicate operating between Cambodia and South Africa.
“She claimed to have travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja. Intelligence leading to her arrest indicates she is a member of a transnational drug trafficking organisation along with her husband/partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager, based in Cambodia from where they operate their drug network along the Cambodian-South African axis,” Babafemi said.
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, arrested a 48-year-old commercial motorcyclist, Onyechere Daniel Chinadu, after he arrived from Madagascar via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
According to the agency, officers recovered 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed inside his backpack.
Babafemi said the suspect later admitted to swallowing additional pellets of the illicit drug before travelling.
“He said he ingested the recovered pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before embarking on his planned journey to Madagascar to deliver the drug consignment. He however said that upon arrival in Madagascar, he was denied entry by Immigration authorities.”
The NDLEA said the suspect was placed under observation because he could not state the number of pellets he had swallowed.
“Between the date of his arrest and 1st of July, he was able to excrete 13 pellets in addition to the initial 87 wraps recovered from him, bringing the total number to 100 wraps of methamphetamine with a gross weight of 1.715 kilograms,” Babafemi said.
The anti-narcotics agency also announced the seizure of 4,143.5 kilograms of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, at the Apapa seaport in Lagos.
Babafemi said the drugs, valued at over N10.3 billion on the street, were discovered inside a container imported from Canada during a joint examination involving NDLEA officers, the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies.
“The discovery followed weeks of targeted tracking and monitoring of the shipment since its departure from Montreal, Canada, by operatives of the Maritime Intelligence Unit of NDLEA in close collaboration with the Apapa Strategic Command of the Agency,” he said.
The agency further disclosed that its operatives thwarted an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk, concealed inside a gas compressor, destined for Cyprus via a Lagos-based courier company.
