The arrest was made when the suspect, Em-manuel, 33 arrived from Brazil aboard a KLM flight and was intercepted at the Murtala Mohammed Interna-tional Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
During a search, powdery substances which later tested positive for cocaine were found in his bag of jew-elleries. It took several hours to extract the cocaine from the jewelleries because of the complex method of conceal-ment.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect who had lived in Brazil for over five years is believed to be working for a suspected Brazilian based drug syndi-cate.
However, in his statement he said he was smuggling the drug for a fee. In his words,
“I needed money for the bur-ial anniversary of my late fa-ther. As the breadwinner, everybody is looking up to me for the sponsorship of the anniversary.
I have lived in Brazil for over five years but I have no money to under-take this important family re-sponsibility. My interest was the 2,000 euros they prom-ised to pay me”. Oluigboka who is married with a child hails from Imo State.
Speaking on the latest dis-covery, NDLEA Airport Commander, Mr. Hamza Umar said that the drug was factory packed inside as-sorted jewelleries.
“This mode of concealment is strange and it is the first time of discovering drugs in-side jewelleries. The drugs were industrially packed in ear rings, buttons, necklaces, bangles as well as in female belts. We had to forcefully open them to recover the drugs. The entire quantity of cocaine found in the jew-ellery products weighed 2.472kg. One arrest has been made in connection with the seizure” Hamza stated.
Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade warned that the Agency will halt the desper-ation of drug trafficking syn-dicates in the country. “Although drug barons are becoming more desperate, the Agency is determined to frustrate their efforts.
This seizure is yet an indication that drug traffickers can go to any length in hiding their drugs from law enforcement agents.” Giade stressed.
No comments:
Post a Comment