The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has uncovered a series of international and domestic drug smuggling operations, arresting a former Nigerian footballer, a Europe-based businessman, and several others across Lagos, Enugu, and Kano.
In a statement issued on Sunday by NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi, it was revealed that Segun George Hunkarin, a former professional footballer who played in Brazil, was arrested at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
He was caught waiting in a carpark to receive a consignment of cocaine smuggled into the country by Ntoruka Chinedu, a trader returning from Turkey via Ethiopian Airlines with a stopover in Addis Ababa.
Chinedu’s hand luggage was searched on arrival and was found to contain 37 wraps of cocaine weighing 800 grams. Investigations traced the delivery to Hunkarin, who admitted to previously trafficking drugs from Brazil to Ethiopia during his playing days but denied smuggling drugs into Nigeria.
In a related incident, Europe-based businessman Amen Okoro Godstime was arrested while trying to board a Royal Air Maroc flight to Spain. He was caught with 5,000 tablets of tramadol disguised as malaria drugs. Okoro claimed he was transporting the drugs to Italy via France.
At the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, two traffickers were intercepted on the same Ethiopian Airlines flight. One, a 38-year-old bar attendant, Ezenwaka Chibuzor Emmanuel, was found with 17.5 kg of methamphetamine and 3.05 kg of cocaine cleverly hidden in bedsheets.
The second, 54-year-old Azu Follygan Kpodar, arrived from São Paulo, Brazil, with 1.25 kg of liquid cocaine concealed in a soap container.
In separate operations, NDLEA operatives arrested a 26-year-old Beninese national, Vode Jean-Luck, at the Seme border in Badagry with 29.5 kg of skunk. In Kwara State, notorious dealer Mary Bolanle Oladele, alias “Iya Nafi,” was caught with quantities of skunk, tramadol, and flunitrazepam. Meanwhile, in Delta State, a 72-year-old woman, Christy Ejaro, was also arrested in Warri with several sachets of skunk.
These busts mark a significant victory for NDLEA in its ongoing crackdown on drug trafficking across Nigeria’s major transit points.
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