A seventy-four-year-old grandfather, Ikwuakalom Nwakoro Emeka, is now in the custody of Nigeria’s anti-narcotics agency after operatives intercepted a large consignment of cocaine hidden in his luggage at Abuja’s international airport.
Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi says the elderly suspect was arrested at the departure hall of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja while preparing to board a British Airways flight to Heathrow Airport in London.
The septuagenarian had told officers he was travelling to the United Kingdom for a vacation, but a routine search of his bags reportedly revealed a different story.
Hidden among food items such as ground dry pepper were blocks of cocaine weighing about eleven kilograms, carefully wrapped in foil papers and concealed inside balloons.
The dramatic airport interception is one of several recent drug busts by NDLEA operatives across the country.
In Lagos, officers acting on intelligence arrested a woman at a hotel on Victoria Island while she allegedly attempted to sell cocaine and a strain of cannabis known as Canadian Loud.
Investigators, the NDLEA spokesman says, the drugs belonged to her husband, who was later arrested after she was released to care for her children.
Further operations on Lagos Island led to the seizure of tens of thousands of tramadol pills and the arrest of multiple suspects linked to attempts to move the drugs across the border to the Benin Republic.
According to the agency, investigations into the cases are ongoing and has intensified its crackdown on drug trafficking networks operating through airports and commercial hubs across Nigeria.
Reporting By Nosa Aituamen