The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, Will Jessica Ann, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 5.75 kilograms of heroin into Nigeria.
NDLEA said the suspect was arrested on Monday, July 6, during the inward clearance of passengers on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha. She was reportedly travelling with her three-year-old son.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the suspect concealed 14 large blocks of heroin inside two suitcases and initially denied travelling with any checked-in luggage.
The agency said its operatives later discovered that the baggage tags on the suitcases matched the claim tags attached to her passport, prompting her to admit ownership of the bags.
“Though she initially denied travelling with check-in bags, after operatives were able to quickly establish that the two bags containing the drugs had tags which tallied with the claim tags attached to her passport, she recanted and admitted ownership of the bags, adding that she forgot she checked in the two bags,” the statement said.
NDLEA said the suspect claimed she travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
The agency added that intelligence revealed she allegedly belongs to a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating along the Cambodia-South Africa route with her husband and partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager.
In a separate operation at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, NDLEA arrested a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle rider, Onyechere Chinadu, after he arrived from Madagascar via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
The agency said operatives recovered 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed in the suspect’s backpack. It added that he confessed to swallowing additional pellets of the illicit drug in Uganda before embarking on the trip.
“He said he ingested the recovered pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before embarking on his planned journey to Madagascar to deliver the drug consignment,” the statement added.
NDLEA said the suspect was denied entry into Madagascar and was redirected to Lagos by his sponsor, where he was arrested.
According to the agency, the suspect was placed under observation because he could not state the exact number of pellets he swallowed. Between his arrest and July 11, he excreted 13 more pellets, bringing the total recovery to 100 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.715 kilograms.
Meanwhile, NDLEA said its operatives intercepted 8,287 bags of Canadian Loud, a synthetic cannabis strain weighing 4,143.5 kilograms and valued at over N10.3 billion, at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos.
The agency said the drugs were discovered during a joint examination with the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies after weeks of surveillance on the container imported from Canada.
“The discovery followed weeks of targeted tracking and monitoring of the shipment since its departure from Montreal, Canada, by operatives of the Maritime Intelligence Unit of NDLEA in close collaboration with the Apapa Strategic Command of the Agency,” the statement said.
NDLEA also disclosed that its operatives thwarted an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk concealed inside a gas compressor bound for Cyprus through a Lagos-based courier company.
The agency further said its commands across the country continued the War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, campaign with sensitisation programmes in schools across Ebonyi, Kano, Ekiti and Ogun states, while its Zone 14 Command paid an advocacy visit to Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, retired Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa, commended the officers involved in the operations and urged personnel across the country to sustain the fight against illicit drug trafficking and abuse.
He charged officers “not to rest on their past laurels” in the agency’s ongoing campaign against drug trafficking and abuse.
