Ibeanusi Solomon Nosike, a businessman from Onitsha, Anambra state, excreted 68 wraps of cocaine after 12 days in the custody of NDLEA following his arrest at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
The spokesperson of the anti-drug agency, Femi Babafemi, released a statement saying that 36-year-old Ibeanusi was arrested in the early hours of Thursday, August 8, 2024, at the old domestic terminal of the Lagos airport. He was attempting to board the first flight out of Lagos to Abuja, where he was scheduled to join a Qatar Airways flight to Vietnam at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) in Abuja at about 10 am on the same day.
‘’The suspect who came under NDLEA surveillance following intelligence had arrived in Lagos from his base in Onitsha, Anambra state the previous day, 7th August and lodged in a hotel where he swallowed the 68 wraps of cocaine before heading to the airport for a 6:30am flight the following morning. He was thereafter intercepted by NDLEA operatives who moved him into excretion observation where he spent the next 12 days excreting the cocaine pellets weighing 1.282 kilograms,”he said
Another Vietnam-bound businessman, 54-year-old Paul Okwuy Mbadugha was arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Abuja airport on Monday 12th August 2024 during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam via Doha after he tested positive for ingestion of cocaine. After four days under observation, Mbadugha ingested a total of 88 wraps of the illicit drug with a gross weight of 1.710 kilograms.
Aligbo Chukwudi Jacob, an Onitsha-based businessman, was arrested by NDLEA operatives after 1.20kg of cannabis was seized in a package bound for Dubai, UAE. The shipment was intercepted at the Lagos airport, and investigations revealed it was sent through a courier company in Onitsha. Aligbo was eventually arrested in Onitsha on Saturday, 17th August.
