The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, identified as Will Ann, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 5.75 kilograms of heroin into Nigeria through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The suspect was arrested on Monday, July 6, during the clearance of passengers arriving aboard Qatar Airways Flight QR1433 from Doha.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the suspect was travelling with her three-year-old son and allegedly concealed 14 large blocks of heroin inside two suitcases.
Babafemi said the woman initially denied travelling with any checked-in luggage but later admitted ownership of the bags after NDLEA operatives matched the baggage tags to the claim tags attached to her passport.
“Though she initially denied travelling with check-in bags, after operatives were able to quickly establish that the two bags containing the drugs had tags which tallied with the claim tags attached to her passport, she recanted and admitted ownership of the bags, adding that she forgot she checked in the two bags,” the statement said.
The suspect reportedly told investigators that she travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
The agency further disclosed that intelligence suggested she was part of a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating along the Cambodia-South Africa route alongside her husband and alleged accomplice, Jan Coenraad De Jager.
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, arrested a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle rider, Onyechere Chinadu, after he arrived from Madagascar via Addis Ababa aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
The agency said an initial search of his backpack uncovered 87 wraps of methamphetamine hidden inside clothing.
According to the statement, the suspect confessed that he had worked as an okada rider in Lagos for 15 years before being recruited into drug trafficking by an associate based in Uganda.
“He said he ingested the recovered pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before embarking on his planned journey to Madagascar to deliver the drug consignment,” the statement said.
NDLEA said the suspect was denied entry into Madagascar and was subsequently redirected to Lagos by his sponsor, where he was arrested.
Because he could not state the exact number of drug pellets he had swallowed, he was placed under observation. Between his arrest and July 11, he excreted 13 additional pellets, bringing the total recovery to 100 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.715 kilograms.
Meanwhile, at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos, NDLEA intercepted 8,287 bags of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, weighing 4,143.5 kilograms and valued at more than N10.3 billion.
The drugs were discovered during a joint examination involving NDLEA, the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies after weeks of surveillance on the container imported from Canada.
According to the agency, the seizure followed weeks of intelligence gathering and tracking by its Maritime Intelligence Unit in collaboration with the Apapa Strategic Command.
The agency also announced that its operatives foiled an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk concealed inside a gas compressor bound for Cyprus through a Lagos-based courier company.
Beyond enforcement operations, NDLEA said it continued its War Against Drug Abuse sensitisation campaign across the country with awareness programmes in secondary schools in Ebonyi, Kano, Ekiti and Ogun states, while its Zone 14 Command paid an advocacy visit to Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, retired Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa, commended officers involved in the operations and urged commands nationwide to sustain the fight against illicit drug trafficking and drug abuse while intensifying public awareness efforts.
