Hot! as NDLEA Foils Cocaine Smuggling Attempt to Saudi Arabia Disguised as Body Cream

Femi Babafemi, the spokesperson for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), conveyed this information in a press release issued to the media on Sunday.

Operatives from the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations of the NDLEA, assigned to courier companies, made significant interceptions on Sunday, October 15. They discovered 1kg of methamphetamine concealed within containers of body cream bound for New Zealand. In addition, another shipment of 2.5kg of cocaine and phenacetin was concealed within the walls of a carton headed for Saudi Arabia.

Furthermore, the spokesperson for Babafemi reported that two more seizures occurred at a different courier company in Lagos on Wednesday, October 18. Among the confiscated items were 112 grams of Dimethyl Sulfone hidden within the hollow section of a motor driving shaft, intended for New Zealand. The other seizure involved 583 grams of cocaine and phenacetin cleverly concealed within a bottle of body cream set for Saudi Arabia.

Additionally, NDLEA agents apprehended a 40-year-old man named Sherif Egbo at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. He was trying to board an Air France flight to Paris, France, after anti-narcotics agents discovered that he had ingested illicit drugs. Egbo, who is based in Madrid, Spain, was arrested on Saturday, October 14, when a body scanner revealed drug-filled wraps in his stomach. Subsequently, he was placed under observation at the agency's exhibit recovery room, where he excreted 93 pellets of heroin weighing 2.222kg. In his statement, the suspect claimed to work at a chicken hatchery farm in Madrid, Spain, while also admitting involvement in drug trafficking.

The NDLEA operatives at the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc's imports shed at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos, on Monday, October 16, seized a shipment of 10 cartons containing 500,000 pills of tramadol 225mg, branded as tapentadol. This cargo, initially purported to be a transit cargo to Monrovia, Liberia, was shipped from India via Qatar Airways, with airway bill number MAWB 319-01227236. The discovery of its true contents was the result of collaborative efforts and intelligence sharing between the NDLEA and its counterparts in Liberia.

Furthermore, an attempt by an intending passenger, Ngene Chinecherem, to transport 11.100kgs of skunk and 600 grams of tramadol cleverly concealed within foodstuffs on a Qatar Airways flight to Muscat, Oman, was foiled by NDLEA officers at the Lagos airport, resulting in the arrest of the individual and the seizure of the illicit substances