from EMEKA OKONKWO in Abuja, Nigeria
Nigeria Bureau
ABUJA, (CAJ News) – NIGERIAN authorities are wary of syndicates hiring white females and foreign nationals to move drugs via Nigerian borders.
The concern follows the interception of a 42-year-old Indian woman, identified as Neetu Neetu, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, with 72 parcels of heroin factory sealed in wafer wraps and packaged as chocolates.
The class “A” drug consignment weighing a total of 11 kilograms was recovered from her luggage after a search, following processed credible intelligence, during inward clearance of a Qatar Airways flight from Bangkok, Thailand via Vietnam and Doha.
This is according to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), which intercepted the suspect, as reported on Sunday.
“The arrest of Neetu signifies a growing attempt by drug trafficking organisations to hire white ladies and foreign nationals to move illicit drugs through the Nigerian borders, a bid that vigilant NDLEA operatives have consistently frustrated with the aid of modern technological tools and proactive intelligence,” said Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd).
In another interdiction operation in Kano, NDLEA officers have arrested a 45-year-old suspect, Michael Ogundele, with a 50-litre steel gas cylinder at Gadar Tamburawa, along Zaria- Kano road.
It turned out the cylinder contained 50 000 pills of 225mg of tramadol instead.
Sunday Ogar (40) was nabbed at Gunduwawa area of Kano with 27kg skunk, a strain of cannabis. A female suspect Khadijah Abdullahi (40) has been arrested with 424 bottles of codeine-based syrup at Lungun Bulala Yalwa area of the state.
– CAJ News