Odita Sunday 
South African woman arrested with heroin hidden in luggage, used son as cover — NDLEA
By Odita Sunday
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 38-year-old South African woman at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 5.75 kilograms of heroin into Nigeria while using her three-year-old son as a cover to evade security scrutiny.
The agency also arrested a commercial motorcycle rider who excreted 100 wraps of methamphetamine after arriving at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, and intercepted Canadian Loud cannabis valued at over N10.3 billion at the Apapa Seaport.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the Director of Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, the South African suspect, identified as Will Jessica Ann, was arrested on Monday, July 6, during the clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR1433 from Doha.
Babafemi said the suspect initially denied travelling with any checked luggage, but investigations revealed that two suitcases containing 14 large blocks of heroin bore baggage tags matching those attached to her passport.
He said the suspect later admitted ownership of the bags, claiming she had forgotten she checked them in.
The NDLEA spokesman disclosed that intelligence reports linked the woman to a transnational drug trafficking syndicate allegedly operated with her husband, Jan Coenraad De Jager, from Cambodia along the Cambodia-South Africa drug route.
In a separate operation at the MMIA, Lagos, NDLEA operatives arrested a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle rider, Onyechere Daniel Chinadu, after he arrived from Madagascar via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
A search of his luggage uncovered 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed among his clothing.
During interrogation, the suspect confessed that he had worked as an Okada rider in Lagos for about 15 years before a Uganda-based associate recruited him into drug trafficking.
He told investigators that he swallowed additional pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before travelling to Madagascar to deliver the illicit consignment but was denied entry by immigration authorities there.
According to the statement, his sponsor subsequently rerouted him to Lagos, where he was arrested.
Babafemi said because the suspect could not state the number of pellets he had ingested, NDLEA placed him under observation, leading to the excretion of 13 additional pellets over three days.
”The total recovered from him rose to 100 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.715 kilograms,” he said.
At the Apapa Seaport, NDLEA officers, working with the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies, intercepted 8,287 nylon bags of Canadian Loud, a strong strain of cannabis, weighing 4,143.5 kilograms with an estimated street value of over N10.3 billion.
The drugs were discovered during a joint examination of a container imported from Canada following weeks of intelligence-led tracking by the agency’s Maritime Intelligence Unit.
In another operation, NDLEA operatives also foiled an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk concealed inside a gas compressor destined for Cyprus through a Lagos courier company.
Beyond enforcement operations, the agency said it sustained its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign with sensitisation programmes in schools and communities across Ebonyi, Kano, Ekiti and Ogun states, while its Zone 14 Command paid an advocacy visit to Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
Commending officers involved in the successful operations, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mohamed Buba Marwa, urged personnel across the country to sustain the momentum in both drug supply reduction and public sensitisation against drug abuse.
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