Kingsley Celestino, a businessman, was detained by NDLEA agents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, when they discovered 9.40 kg of heroin hidden in the false bottoms of his two suitcases.
Kingsley, a business class passenger on a Qatar Airline aircraft, was detained at Terminal 2 of the MMIA on Saturday, March 4, according to a statement issued on Sunday and signed by the anti-narcotic agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi. Kingsley was travelling to India at the time.
Despite being a native of Anambra State’s Nnewi South Local Government Area, the 49-year-old was travelling on a Guinean passport.
The initial inquiry found that the suspect routinely takes business class flights to India. He asserted that he conducts apparel trade between Nigeria and India. It was further proven that he acquired the Guinean passport in Guinea Bissau, the country from which he claimed his mother originated, according to the statement.
In a same vein, Etounu Monday, a 24-year-old traveller bound for Oman, was stopped on Monday, February 27, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja while attempting to export 1.924kg of skunk concealed in cream tubes.
The NDLEA statement continues, “At the Tincan seaport, Lagos, NDLEA operatives recovered 244 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 79 kilogrammes on Friday, March 3, concealed in medium-sized wooden sound system speakers packed inside two out of four used vehicles in a container marked CRSU9258348 coming from Toronto via Montreal, Canada. A 2009 Jeep Wrangler and a 2009 Honda Ridgeline are two imported automobiles that were used as a front for the drugs.
A shipment of nine packets of methamphetamine disguised as local black soap, Dudu Osun, bound for Europe was also confiscated by NDLEA operatives from the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, DOGI, assigned to courier companies in Lagos.
A drum containing 270kg of methylene chloride and no less than 778,190 pills of pharmaceutical opioids, including tramadol, were taken from a suspect named Eric Pepe Yohanna, 33, on Monday, February 27 in Jalingo, Taraba state as a result of reliable intelligence. A Daylong tricycle used in the distribution of the illegal narcotics was also taken from him.
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“In the wee hours of Monday, February 27, police in Adamawa state stormed the residence of a wanted, notorious drug dealer named Mamudu Njobdi at Sebore, Gyalla Road Dougada Ward, where he was detained and narcotics evidence was found. The defendant, 31, was initially detained on February 22 at his drug den in Kolere Water Board, but he organised thugs to attack NDLEA officers and fled with evidence.
“Whilst a suspect, Geoffrey Okpani, 31, was detained with 27.45kg of cannabis in the Bukuru neighbourhood of Jos, Plateau state, Ajayi Tope, 30, was detained with 18kg of the same material on Saturday, March 4, in Area 5 Ile-Ife, Ife South Local Government Area, Osun state.
On March 3, NDLEA agents carried out a raid at the De-Niche Hotel & Suites in Omole Estate, Ojodu Ikeja, Lagos, during which 24 suspects were detained and various amounts of illegal substances were retrieved from them.
Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, praised the officers, men and women of MMIA, NAIA, Tincan, Taraba, Adamawa, Plateau, Osun and Lagos Commands as well as DOGI for their efforts in response to the arrests and seizures of the previous week. In order to deny political thugs access to illegal drugs in advance of this weekend’s elections for the House of Assembly and the Governorship, he urged them and their counterparts around the nation to step up their current mop-up operations.
