THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has thwarted an attempt by a human trafficker, Mathew Bassey, to export illicit drugs to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, by planting them in the luggage of an orphan, Peter Gift Eno.
According to a statement by the NDLEA signed by Femi Babafemi, the agency’s Director, Media & Advocacy, Eno, was recruited for a phantom job in the UAE by Bassey.
The NDLEA said Bassey, 29, from Oron local government (LGA), Akwa Ibom State, was arrested on Wednesday July 6, following the interception of Eno at the departure hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
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“When Eno’s luggage was searched, 50 parcels of cannabis (2.80kg) concealed in food items were discovered, while there were discrepancies between the age she declared and the date of birth on her international passport.
“Further interview revealed that the human trafficker who recruited and brought her to the airport, Mathew Bassey, was still lurking around the airport, waiting for her departure. He was promptly tracked and arrested.
“Investigations showed that the victim, who hails from the same Oron LGA like Bassey, recently lost her mother and, as a result, made it easy for Bassey to recruit her with the promise of securing her a job in Dubai, UAE,” the statement stated.
The agency said Bassey leveraged on the victim’s naivety and planted drugs in her bag for onward delivery to his contact in Dubai.
The anti-drug agency said it frustrated another desperate bid by a drug trafficker, Aloysius Ajuruchukwu Onyekwe (a.k.a Kelvin), to travel by road to Algeria through Sokoto State with ingested 47 wraps of cocaine in his stomach.
NDLEA said its operatives intercepted Onyekwe in Ibadan, Oyo State, following intelligence shared by the Department of State Security (DSS).
“Onyekwe, 26, who hails from Owerri West LGA, Imo State, was arrested on Sunday 3rd July at Ojo park, Ibadan, where he went to board a vehicle en route Sokoto to Algeria.
“He was travelling with an 18-year-old lady, Blessing Nwoke. The father of a 10-month-old child, who passed out the 47 pellets of cocaine in five excretions, confessed that he began his journey to Algeria from the Cele area of Okota, Lagos, where he ingested the illicit drug, weighing 1.1kg,” the statement added.
Also, in Oyo State, the NDLEA said no fewer than 1,900 tablets of Tramadol 225mg were seized from a drug dealer, Mustapha Ijabula, 22, who was arrested in a Yola, Adamawa-bound commercial vehicle.
A reporter with the ICIR
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