The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested a 34-year-old South African woman, Qhina Beauty, with 36.65 kilogrammes of cocaine at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. The agency also arrested a Nigerian-American woman with 9.45kg of cannabis allegedly imported from the United States.
NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed the arrests in a statement on Sunday. He said Beauty was arrested on October 7 while preparing to board a Qatar Airways flight to South Africa via Doha, with 30 blocks of cocaine concealed in two travelling bags.
Babafemi said Beauty told investigators she arrived in Nigeria on September 30 to collect the drugs and had been promised R20,000 by another South African woman for delivering the consignment. She reportedly identified two other alleged members of the network, including a Lagos-based car dealer, Uchenna Victor Umunnakwe.
The agency said Umunnakwe was arrested on October 14 at Apple Junction, Ago Palace Way, Lagos, after surveillance at his residence in Shasha. He reportedly admitted receiving Beauty at the airport and lodging her at two hotels before her planned departure.
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives arrested 62-year-old realtor Anetor Gloria Ubong on October 21 after she arrived in Lagos from Houston, United States. A search of her luggage reportedly uncovered 18 parcels of cannabis weighing 9.45kg, concealed in gift-wrapping paper. She claimed the package was delivered to her home in the US by her daughter and the daughter’s future brother-in-law for delivery to her daughter’s fiancé in Nigeria.
Babafemi said the agency also seized illicit drugs and pharmaceutical opioids in operations across several states. The recoveries included 29,350 tramadol capsules and thousands of other drug tablets and bottles of codeine syrup in Delta State, 97.2kg of cannabis in Kano, 60.175kg in Taraba and 64,000 opioid pills in Niger State.
Other operations led to the recovery of 379kg of cannabis in Bauchi, 583kg of abandoned cannabis in Ondo and the destruction of two cannabis farms in Edo State, which reportedly had an estimated yield of more than two tonnes. NDLEA Chairman, Mohamed Buba Marwa, commended officers involved in the operations and urged them to sustain efforts against drug trafficking and substance abuse.
