By Uche Onyeali
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have arrested a 30-year-old Brazilian woman, Ingrid Benevides with 30.09 kilograms of heroin.
The drugs, said to worth over N3 billion in street value, were allegedly concealed in factory-sealed coffee packs at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, in a statement yesterday, said the suspect was intercepted last Friday after arriving Abuja on a Qatar Airways flight.
Babafemi said Benevides, a private security officer in Brazil, was placed under intelligence-led surveillance before her arrest at the airport.
He said a search of her two checked-in bags uncovered 21 factory-sealed packs of Brazilian coffee containing white substances that later tested positive for heroin.
“When the coffee bags were opened, rather than containing the beverage, what was found inside were white substances that later tested positive for heroin, weighing a total of 30.09 kilograms, making it the single largest heroin seizure at the Abuja airport.
“During her preliminary interview, the suspect claimed she brought the white heroin consignment under the guise of coming to Nigeria for holidays,” Babafemi said.
The statement said NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, also intercepted Adediran Adedoyin and Afatakpa Ochuko on January 20 while they were en route Istanbul, Turkey.
He said the suspects were found with 3,990 pills of tapentadol and tramadol concealed in food items packed in their luggage.
“At the MMIA Ikeja, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday, January 20 intercepted two passengers: Adedoyin and Ochuko who were heading to Istanbul aboard a Turkish Airlines flight with a total of 3,990 pills of tapentadol 250mg and tramadol 225mg concealed in food items packed in their bags,” he said.
The spokesperson said operatives of the agency’s marine command intercepted a wooden boat loaded with 44 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud cannabis weighing 1,848 kilograms at Jakande Beach, Lekki, Lagos, in the early hours of January 22.
“The shipment had barely arrived from Ghana when NDLEA officers acting on credible intelligence stormed the location around 1am, recovered the consignment and the boat,” he said.
In Kaduna, Babafemi said two suspects, Aminu Baba, 20, and Abdulrasheed Abubakar, 28, were arrested with two bags containing 140 packets of explosives along Kaduna-Zaria highway.
He said the explosives were seized from a commercial bus, while the suspects were arrested during follow-up operations in Kano and Kaduna.
According to him, intelligence-led operations across several states also led to multiple arrests and the seizure of tramadol, skunk, pentazocine injections, cannabis seeds and codeine syrup.
Babafemi said NDLEA had intensified intelligence-driven operations targeting drug importation routes, distribution chains and local trafficking syndicates nationwide.
