Okafor Emmanuel Junior was arrested at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, on his arrival from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with 1.40kg crack cocaine concealed in his bags.
The 33-year-old man from Arochukwu Local Government, Abia State, was arrested on September 26, 2022, after anti-narcotic officers found him concealing class A drugs in his bag handles and padding their top edges.
According to NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi, “During the preliminary interview, Okafor disclosed that he played for UNTH Enugu FC for four seasons before leaving for Sri Lanka in 2014. After two seasons in Sri Lanka, he moved to Brazil but couldn’t advance his career due to a lack of documents.
Ibeh Chinedu Damian was arrested the same day after arriving from Sao Paulo on Ethiopian Airlines. Ibeh, from Ahiazu, Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State, hid 3.20kg of ‘Lucci’ in the false bottoms of two bags.
“In his statement, he said he’d be paid N3,100,000 for delivering the drug to Nigeria.
NDLEA thwarted a 32-year-old businesswoman’s attempt to smuggle 2.150kg of Rohypnol through NAIA, Abuja, to Istanbul, Turkey. The mother was arrested on September 23 while trying to board a Turkish airline flight with the drug hidden in pepper.
The indigene of Afiesere village, Ughelli North Local Government, Delta State, runs a restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey, but came to Nigeria to visit relatives and buy food.
Mohammed Demoele, 38, and Coulibaly Maliki, 56, were arrested at Ebute Ero jetty in Lagos for trying to export 34.2kg bottles of Akuskura to Mali via Cotonou, Benin Republic.
In Taraba state, operatives intercepted 100 compressed blocks of Cannabis Sativa weighing 73.500kg on September 29. Their counterparts in Ogun state arrested a physically challenged drug dealer, Abdulraham Mohammed, on October 1.
Safiya Bello was arrested with 27kg of the psychotropic substance in Shagamu, Babafemi said.
Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), Chairman/CEO of NDLEA, commended the officers and men of Seaports Operations, MMIA, Ogun, and Taraba Commands for their resilience and charged them and others across the country to intensify ongoing offensive action against drug cartels and traffickers wherever they may be located in Nigeria.
