The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, announced its operatives have arrested a Spain based businessman, 50-year-old Francis Akajiobi, at the departure hall of terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja Lagos, after parcels of cocaine weighing 1.20 kilograms were discovered in his pair of sandals while attempting to board his Royal Air Maroc flight to Madrid, Spain.
NDLEA said the two parcels of cocaine were concealed in the soles of a pair of black sandals Akajiobi was wearing to board his flight when NDLEA operatives intercepted him on Thursday, July 25, 2024.
This was announced in a statement by Femi Babafemi, Director of Media and Advocacy, on Sunday.
Babafemi stated that the suspect claimed during his preliminary interview that the consignment was delivered to him at a bar in Port Harcourt, Rivers state and was to deliver it to his friend and neighbour in Spain for a fee of five thousand euros (€5,000) upon successful delivery to the recipient.
He also announced that a suspect, Makinde Sodiq Lekan, has been arrested in connection with the seizure of 99 parcels of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 51.60kg that arrived the SAHCO Imports shed of the Lagos airport on a Turkish Airlines flight from Canada via Istanbul, Turkey.
Meanwhile, NDLEA said its operatives at the Special Operations Unit targeting syndicates that specialize in shipping large consignments of opioids into neighbouring countries from where they attempt smuggling them into Nigeria in smaller quantities through transport companies, have arrested one of the kingpins, Chukwuemaka Obodozie.
Babafemi said the suspect was arrested in the early hours of Sunday, July 21, at Cele bus stop along Oshodi-Apapa express road, Lagos with 100,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg loaded in two bags shortly after his arrival from Ghana via one of the transport companies plying the Lagos-Ghana route.
According to him, the intelligence led-operation followed five months of surveillance around the suspect.
