By Chesa Chesa
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, Ms. Will Jessica Ann, 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 checks.
The agency also announced the seizure of cannabis popularly known as Canadian Loud valued at over ₦10.3 billion at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos, alongside the arrest of an alleged drug courier who excreted 100 wraps of methamphetamine after arriving in the country.
According to a statement issued by the NDLEA on Sunday, the South African suspect was arrested on Monday, July 6, during the inward clearance of passengers aboard Qatar Airways Flight QR1433 from Doha to Abuja.
The agency said officers discovered 14 large blocks of heroin weighing 5.75 kilograms concealed in two pieces of luggage linked to the suspect.
NDLEA said the woman initially denied travelling with any checked-in baggage but changed her position after officers established that the baggage tags matched the claim tags attached to her passport.
“She eventually admitted ownership of the bags, claiming she forgot she had checked them in,” the statement said.
Investigations revealed that the suspect had travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
The anti-narcotics agency said intelligence available to it indicates that she and her husband or partner, identified as Jan Coenraad De Jager, are members of a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating between Cambodia and South Africa.
In a separate operation at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, NDLEA operatives arrested a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle rider, Onyechere Daniel Chinadu, shortly after he arrived from Madagascar via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
A search of his checked-in backpack led to the recovery of 87 wraps of methamphetamine hidden inside clothing.
During interrogation, the suspect claimed he had worked as an Okada rider in the Oke-Afa area of Lagos for 15 years before a Uganda-based associate recruited him into drug trafficking.
He told investigators that he ingested additional pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before setting out for Madagascar to deliver the illicit consignment.
However, he said he was denied entry into Madagascar by immigration authorities, forcing his alleged sponsor, identified as Ozor Igo, to reroute him to Lagos, where he was arrested.
Because he could not state the exact number of pellets he had swallowed, NDLEA placed him under medical observation.
Between his arrest and July 1, he excreted 13 additional pellets, bringing the total quantity recovered from him to 100 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.715 kilograms.
Meanwhile, at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos, NDLEA officers, working jointly with the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies, intercepted 8,287 nylon bags of Canadian Loud weighing 4,143.5 kilograms with an estimated street value of more than ₦10.3 billion.
The illicit consignment was discovered inside a container imported from Canada during a joint examination conducted on Friday, July 10.
According to the agency, the seizure followed weeks of intelligence-led tracking and monitoring by the Maritime Intelligence Unit of the NDLEA in collaboration with the Apapa Strategic Command from the point of shipment in Montreal, Canada.
In another operation, NDLEA operatives attached to the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) thwarted an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk, a strain of cannabis, concealed inside a gas compressor destined for Cyprus through a Lagos-based courier company.
The agency said investigations into the various cases are ongoing as efforts continue to dismantle the criminal networks behind the drug trafficking operations.
