NDLEA Arrests Canada-Based Nurse, Businessmen for Alleged Drug Trafficking

The NDLEA has apprehended a Canada-based nurse and several businessmen in connection with an alleged drug trafficking operation. Investigations are ongoing into the criminal activities.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has apprehended several individuals, including two businessmen and a Nigerian-Canadian nurse, on suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking.

One of the suspects, 51-year-old Ihejirika Emmanuel, often travels to Thailand claiming to import fish. NDLEA operatives arrested him on October 15, 2024, at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos as he was preparing to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight bound for Thailand through Addis Ababa.

In a statement on Sunday, NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi revealed that a body scan showed Ihejirika had swallowed cocaine. “Consequently, he was put under observation until he excreted five large, egg-sized packages of cocaine weighing 400 grams,” Babafemi said.

The suspect allegedly confessed that he had been promised payment for successfully delivering the drugs in Thailand, stating that the money was meant to support his fish importation business.

In a related operation, the NDLEA apprehended 26-year-old businessman Iwuagwu Victory at Lagos airport upon his return from Brazil with a layover in Addis Ababa.

A body scan revealed that he had allegedly ingested cocaine, and subsequently, he excreted a pellet weighing 22 grams.

According to Babafemi, Victory admitted to ingesting 30 wraps of the drug in Brazil; however, by the time he reached Addis Ababa, he had expelled 29 and given them to another person.

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A notable arrest took place on October 4 at Lagos airport, when Nigerian-Canadian nurse Usman Grace Olami was apprehended among passengers arriving via Air France from Toronto through Paris. Authorities discovered in her luggage 70 packages of synthetic cannabis, known as Canadian Loud, weighing a total of 35.70 kilograms.

Babafemi mentioned that the nurse alleged she had transported the drugs to Nigeria following her boyfriend’s directive. “According to her, he requested that she deliver this highly sought-after consignment,” Babafemi noted.

The NDLEA carried out seizures at seaports and various other locations. On October 15, officials confiscated a total of 162,351 bottles of codeine-based syrup from two containers at the Apapa seaport in Lagos.

Moreover, a shipment at the Port Harcourt Port Complex in Onne, Rivers State included 7.2 million pills of Tapentadol and Carisoprodol, with a total value of ₦3.6 billion.

Babafemi reported that 15.6 million chlorphenamine pills were discovered inside the same container, and two other containers at Onne port contained 337,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup valued at ₦2.35 billion.