Sniffer dogs belonging to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have helped the agency to seize heroin worth about N160 million, the agency said in a statement today.
NDLEA said that anti-narcotic agents had placed the consignment on surveillance after sniffer dogs signaled that it contained hard drugs.
The operation led to the ultimate discovery of 16 kilogrammes of high grade heroin abandoned by a suspected drug syndicate at the National Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Shed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
The brownish substance was packed in white transparent polythene bags and hidden inside metal pipes, the agency said.
The drug was brought as cargo on a KLM flight from the Republic of Iran with an estimated street value of the drug in Lagos of about N160 million, NDLEA said.
“The agency conducted 100 percent search because of the alert given by the sniffer dogs. A welder was invited to forcefully cut the pipe open. The effort paid off when the heroin was found.
The cargo with Air Waybill number 0747419547 was addressed to one Mr. Nnaemeka Chinedu Joseph of 64, Ladipo Industrial Parts, Mushin Lagos, “ NDLEA said.
According to the Airport Commander Hamza Umar, the consignment arrived from Iran but was left unclaimed.
“The consignment was at the NAHCO shed upon arrival from Iran. Based on suspicion we placed it under observation.
However, when nobody came forward to take delivery of the consignment, we first brought in the sniffer dogs to examine it.
The dogs alerted that the thick metal pipes are positive for narcotics. This was what emboldened us to conduct extensive examination openly witnessed by customs, police and other security officials.
They were all amazed at the clever way the drug was concealed,” Hamza said.
NDLEA parades 11 peddlers/users of hard drugs in Port Harcourt
Eleven persons, including seven men and four women, were arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Port Harcourt for being in possession of and peddling various hard drugs with total weight of 347.732 kilograms.
Commander of the rivers state command of the NDLEA, Jude Ekure, who told journalists at a briefing in his office in Port Harcourt, said substances comprising cocaine, heroin and cannabis were retrieved from a joint operation with operatives from the 2 Amphibious, Port Harcourt barracks, on the slum at Abonnema wharf.
According to him, the operation which started at about 3am, caught the peddlers in the slum unawares, a factor which he said made it a success.
The NDLEA boss who said the state needed a lot of work to do in the area of drug abuse and illicit trafficking, going by the volume of hard drugs that were impounded from just a single operation in one area, noting that there is need to pay real attention and not lip service to ending the drug menace in the state.
He said “the operation was carried at about 3am this morning between officials of the NDLEA and operatives of the 2nd brigade of the Nigerian Army at Abonnema wharf. At the end of the day we made 11 arrests, seven males and four females.
“A total of 347.732 kilogrammes of hard drugs, comprising cannabis, heroine and cocaine were recovered from that scene of operation. If from one operation in one small area, we were able to recover this volume of hard drugs, it goes to say that the state has a lot to do in tackling the problem drug abuse and illicit trafficking,” said the anti-drug chief.
He further stated that the agency had not carried out any operation in the area all along because it was taking its time to do a thorough job “by the arrests and seizure this morning you will agree with me that we have some impact”.
The suspects were later paraded with the seized illegal items. Some of the suspects paraded are Elizabeth West, a first year student of Banking and Finance department of Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri-Borno state, Nene Johnson, Festus Okumgba, Jude Okpara and Grace Etel among others
Ekure said the suspects were going to be prosecuted accordingly.
Nigerian drug cartel busted in Spain, 15 arrested
A Nigerian drug cartel responsible for smuggling of cocaine and other drugs into Spain and other European countries from the Latinos and Africa has reportedly been busted by Spanish police officials with 15 members arrested.
The group, based in the Madrid suburb of Alcala de Henares, use drug mules who injest pellets filled with drugs and avoid detection at airports, the police said in a statement.
Police seized about 18 pounds of cocaine and 17,000 euros in cash as part of their investigation, which began in September 2011.
The majority of those arrested were Nigerian citizens.
Police carried out their first arrest as part of the operation in October 2011 at the airport at Palma de Majorca of a man who had swallowed 77 pellets of cocaine.
Later that month police detained another man at the same airport who had swallowed 68 pellets of cocaine.
“These people had been sent by the organisation to Madrid to collect cocaine from other members of the ring which based in Alcala de Henares. From there they would also send mules to South America and Africa to collect the drug,” a police statement said.
Spain’s proximity to North Africa, a key source of hashish, and its close ties with its former colonies in Latin America, a major cocaine producing region, have made it a major gateway into Europe for drug traffickers.
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