NDLEA arrests 63-year-old Chinese woman with 31kg synthetic cannabis
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested Ting Hung Kiong, a 63-year-old Chinese national, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 31 kilogrammes of Canadian Loud — a synthetic strain of cannabis — into Nigeria.
Kiong, who holds Malaysian citizenship, was intercepted on Sunday, May 17, upon arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, aboard an Emirates flight from Thailand via Dubai.
She had two large travel boxes containing the consignment.
The suspect, who claims to work as a caregiver in Malaysia, told investigators her daughter sponsored the trip from Malaysia to Thailand, where she spent two weeks before being handed the drugs at a Thailand airport for delivery in Nigeria.
In a related operation, NDLEA operatives recovered a massive shipment of 1,825,710 tablets of Tapentadol 250mg valued at N2.19 billion at the Lagos airport import shed.
The consignment, which arrived from India via Emirates Cargo, was handed over by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on May 22 after monitoring by the agency.
AIRPORT ARRESTS
At the Akanu Ibiam International airport in Enugu, NDLEA officers on May 20 arrested Onyeka Emeka, who excreted 185.36 grammes of cocaine after arriving from Sierra Leone via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
In Abuja, Babatunde Afekhide, a 29-year-old building engineer, was arrested on May 21 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport while attempting to board a flight to Milan, Italy, via Addis Ababa.
Operatives recovered 10,280 pills of Tramadol and Tapentadol concealed with foil paper inside his luggage.
OTHER SEIZURES
NDLEA operatives also intercepted drug parcels at a courier company in Lagos destined for Europe and the United States.
These included 1,174 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) hidden in a bicycle luggage carrier heading to the Netherlands, 66 Tramadol pills concealed in soap going to the US, and 18 Tramadol tablets hidden in body cream bound for the UK.
In Edo state, officers raided Igwe community in Owan East LGA and recovered 489kg of skunk cannabis and 9kg of cannabis seeds.
In Ekiti state, a raid on a warehouse at Ikole-Ekiti on May 23 led to the seizure of 1,116kg of skunk and the arrest of 54-year-old Ogundana Adebayo Julius.
Other operations include the arrest of Isah Sani with 196,000 pills of Exol-5 along the Zaria-Kano road, and the recovery of 59kg of skunk from a warehouse in Badagry, Lagos state.
The agency continued its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaigns across schools and communities in Oyo, Anambra, Katsina, Lagos, Enugu, Ekiti, and Kano states during the week.
Buba Marwa, the NDLEA chairman, commended operatives from the Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Edo, Ekiti, Seme, and Kano commands for the successes, urging them to sustain the momentum in supply and drug demand reduction efforts.
