50-year-old businessman, Osuoha Christian Iheanacho, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, for ingesting 90 wraps of cocaine.
It was learnt that Osuoha was intercepted on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at the arrival hall of the Enugu airport during the inbound screening of passengers arriving from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on an Ethiopian airlines flight following months of intelligence and surveillance on him.
The suspect who reportedly sells phones and their accessories in Lagos and Gabon was said to have “travelled by road from Gabon to Douala, Cameroon from where he took a flight to Addis Ababa where he ingested the pellets of cocaine while in transit and thereafter continued his journey to Enugu, with Lagos as his final destination”.
Femi Babafemi, NDLEA Director of Media & Advocacy in a statement on Sunday, said the suspect was subsequently placed on excretion observation during which he egested 90 pellets of cocaine weighing 2.019 kilograms in seven excretions.
The statement reads, “He deliberately complicated his movement to distort traces of his travel history unknown to him that he has been on NDLEA watchlist for the past three months. In his statement, Osuoha said he desperately needed the money from the criminal drug trade to boost his declining phone and accessories business.
“In another well-coordinated operation carried out by a Special Operations Unit of the Agency on Thursday 21st November, head of a cocaine distribution cartel, 42-year-old Ndive Maxwell Obinna was arrested along with five of his associates at Ago Palace Way in Okota, Isolo, Lagos. A total of 2.412 kilograms of cocaine were recovered from them.
“Other members of the drug trafficking organization arrested along Obinna include: Okeke Gloria Ifeoma who is the syndicate’s stash keeper; Ikechebelu Emmanuel Chibuzor; Okorie Onyedikachi; Okonkwo Nnabugo Prince; and Okafor Blessing Anita.”