Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have arrested a 63-year-old Chinese woman, Ting Hung Kiong, over an alleged attempt to smuggle a large consignment of illicit drugs into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
The anti-narcotics agency disclosed that the suspect, a Chinese national said to have acquired Malaysian citizenship, was apprehended on May 17 shortly after arriving in Nigeria from Thailand through Dubai aboard an Emirates flight.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the suspect was intercepted at the arrival section of Terminal 2 of the airport with two large suitcases containing 31 kilograms of Canadian Loud, a potent synthetic strain of cannabis.
Babafemi explained that preliminary investigations showed the woman travelled from Malaysia to Thailand before heading to Nigeria through the United Arab Emirates.
During interrogation, the suspect reportedly told investigators that she works as a caregiver in Malaysia and claimed that her daughter financed the trip.
“She stated that she stayed in Thailand for two weeks before the drug consignment was handed over to her at the airport for delivery in Nigeria,” the statement added.
In another operation, NDLEA operatives uncovered 1,825,710 tablets of Tapentadol 250mg valued at about N2.19bn at the import shed of the Lagos airport.
The agency said the opioid shipment arrived from India aboard an Emirates cargo flight and was later transferred to the NDLEA by the Nigeria Customs Service after days of surveillance.
The statement noted that the consignment, packed in 29 cartons, was officially handed over on May 22.
At the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, operatives also arrested a suspect, Onyeka Valentine Emeka, during the clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sierra Leone via Addis Ababa.
The agency disclosed that the suspect was placed under observation and later excreted 185.36 grams of cocaine.
Similarly, a 29-year-old building engineer identified as Babatunde Prosper Afekhide was arrested at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, while attempting to board a flight to Milan, Italy.
NDLEA said a search of his luggage uncovered 10,280 pills of Tramadol and Tapentadol concealed inside a carton hidden in his suitcase.
The anti-drug agency also intercepted various illicit consignments at a Lagos courier facility, including 1,174 MDMA pills concealed in bicycle luggage carriers bound for the Netherlands, Tramadol tablets hidden in soap containers destined for the United States, and other narcotics concealed in body cream containers heading to the United Kingdom.
In Edo State, operatives raided the Igwe community in Owan East Local Government Area where they recovered 59 jumbo bags of skunk weighing 489 kilograms alongside nine kilograms of cannabis seeds.
A separate operation along the Zaria-Kano road led to the arrest of a 30-year-old suspect, Isah Sani, with 196,000 pills of Exol-5, while NDLEA officers at the Seme border axis of Lagos recovered 59 kilograms of skunk from a warehouse in Badagry.
In Ekiti State, operatives stormed a warehouse in Ikole-Ekiti and recovered 1,116 kilograms of skunk, leading to the arrest of a 54-year-old suspect, Ogundana Adebayo Julius.
The agency added that its commands across the country sustained sensitisation campaigns under the War Against Drug Abuse initiative in schools, religious centres and communities.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended officers involved in the operations and urged them to intensify the fight against drug trafficking and substance abuse nationwide.