The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has apprehended a 29-year-old Thailand returnee, Oguejiofor Nnaemeka Simonpeter, for attempting to smuggle 13.30 kilograms of heroin valued at over N3.192 billion into Nigeria.
The arrest took place at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, on Monday, October 7, 2024.
Oguejiofor, a graduate of Mechanical Engineering from Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli, Anambra State, had boarded a Qatar Airways flight from Thailand on October 3, with a layover in Doha before landing in Lagos on October 5. His luggage, originally destined for Accra, Ghana, was rerouted to Nigeria where he hoped to evade detection by picking them up as rush bags.
According to NDLEA’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, in a statement issued on Sunday, “NDLEA officers intercepted him at the point of exit. A search of his two suitcases revealed three empty backpacks in each box with a large parcel of heroin neatly sewn to all the six backpacks. The six parcels were subsequently recovered with a gross weight of 13.30kg.”
Oguejiofor admitted in his statement that he had been hired to smuggle the drugs for a payment of $7,000. He confessed that his mission was to deliver two parcels in Lagos and the remaining four in Accra, Ghana.
This arrest is part of an intensified crackdown on transnational drug cartels by the NDLEA. The agency has been stepping up interdiction efforts across Nigeria and beyond.
In a related development, NDLEA operatives at three seaports successfully intercepted large quantities of opioids with a total street value of N22,740,958,000. Among the seized contraband were 32,607,900 tramadol pills worth N12.577 billion, and 1,451,994 bottles of codeine-based syrup valued at N10.163 billion. The seizures were made at Lekki Deep Seaport, Apapa Seaport in Lagos, and the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers State.
“The illicit consignments were seized from containers watchlisted by NDLEA based on intelligence and processed for 100 per cent joint examination with men of the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies,” the NDLEA stated.
