Businessman Arrested At PH Airport For Swallowing 53 Cocaine Pellets On Route to Iran

JUST under two weeks after National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) officers at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) in Kano detained 60-year-old businessman Chinedu Leonard Okigbo for attempting to smuggle 65 pellets of cocaine to Iran, another arrest has been made.

This time, 44-year-old Ezemokwe Chukwuebuka Christian was apprehended at the Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA) for swallowing 53 wraps of cocaine while en route to Tehran Khomeini, Iran.

Ezemokwe was caught on Saturday, June 7, while preparing to board Qatar Airways flight QR1434 heading to Tehran via Doha. A body scan confirmed drug ingestion, prompting officials to place him under observation. He subsequently excreted 53 cocaine pellets over six bowel movements, with the total weight coming to 1.172 kilograms. Ezemokwe admitted he entered the drug trade two years ago and has since shuttled between West Africa and Iran for smuggling activities.

Meanwhile, NDLEA agents stationed at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos, intercepted another suspect in the early hours of Saturday, June 14. The individual, Edobor Ambrose Ali, was preparing to fly to Italy aboard an Air France flight when airport security personnel, in collaboration with NDLEA officers, uncovered concealed drugs in his luggage during routine baggage scanning.

Following the scan, Ali was removed from the aircraft for further checks. A detailed inspection of his bag led to the discovery of 14,410 tablets of tramadol (225mg and 200mg) hidden inside winter jackets. Ali later confessed he resides in Italy and was paid €2,000 for the all-expenses-paid trip to transport the drugs from Nigeria to Milan.

In a separate operation on Friday, June 13, NDLEA operatives at the Onne Port in Rivers State intercepted a shipment of 157,800 bottles of codeine-laced syrup, valued at over ₦1.1 billion on the street. The illicit cargo was found during a joint inspection of a flagged container, where it was concealed behind 257 boxes of ceramic sanitary products.

Three suspects were taken into custody on Thursday, June 12, during a raid on a warehouse in Obereakai, Odukpani Local Government Area, Cross River State. The operation led to the seizure of 2,687kg of skunk, a potent cannabis variant. On the same day in Bauchi State, NDLEA officers acting on intelligence apprehended two individuals, Iriemi Imonikhe (49) and Sa’idu Ladan (30), on the Bauchi-Jos highway. Their Toyota Camry, registered as AKL 201 GG, contained 195 blocks of skunk weighing 287kg.

Also on June 12, NDLEA’s Marine Command recovered 14 large sacks of skunk weighing 560kg from a wooden boat at Oniru Beach in Lagos. That same day, two businessmen, Ishaku Abdullahi (30) and Buba Usman (32), were arrested at Muhammadu Buhari International Airport Maiduguri (MBIAM) with various quantities of ecstacy pills and skunk packaged in fanciful wraps labelled as ‘Lychee’ and ‘Porro Legal’.