The intervention of regional bodies has become imperative for a healthy and drug free life. “Heroin is usually smuggled from Pakistan, Iran and India but things are changing with the seizure of heroin coming from Tanzania. This is strange because they have turned drug trafficking into a relay race. The first set of traffickers will smuggle heroin from Pakistan to Tanzania while another set will take it from Tanzania to Nigeria. This is a new plan to evade arrest but we shall now beam our searchlight on African flights” stated the Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ahmadu Giade.
He also added that “the role of credible stakeholders such as regional organisations must be maximised. This is needed to boost drug control operations in the world particularly in Africa. Regional organisations can assist in developing legal frameworks and provide funding for drug control programmes. This way drug control capacity will be greatly enhanced in the continent”.
Some of the latest tricks uncovered by Nigerian anti-narcotic Agents include the arrest of drug traffickers who smuggle heroin into the country from Tanzania. In addition, drug couriers now ingest liquid cocaine poured into male condoms for the first time. These tricks were uncovered at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos.
NDLEA Commander at the airport, Mr. Hamza Umar said four suspected drug traffickers were apprehended. Two suspects, Ezeani Obinna, 28 year old auto dealer at Ladipo market and Ozoemena Okoye Samuel, 27 years old dealer in electrical parts both in Lagos were caught bringing heroin from Tanzania while two others, Egbo Innocent Oluchukwu and Ejimbe Christian Chidi were found to have ingested liquid cocaine poured into male condoms to avoid detection. In his words, “they thought that scanning machine will not detect liquid cocaine but they were wrong. Even those coming from Tanzania felt that there will be no attention on them. We shall continue to do our best to prevent traffickers from using this airport”.
The suspects coming from Tanzania were detected during screening of passengers on Kenyan Airways. The other two that arrived from Venezuela used Emergency travel certificate aboard South Africa Airline flight. This is the first case of liquid cocaine ingestion in the country. The liquid cocaine which is oily was packed inside condoms. Egbo Innocent Oluchukwu a 43 year old trader excreted 70 wraps of the oily cocaine weighing 2kg. Ejimbe Christian Chidi, 32 years old teacher swallowed 54 wraps of same oily cocaine weighing 1.350kg.
Egbo who arrived with an Emergency travel certificate number 00000600 claimed to have spent ten years in Venezuela. During interrogation, he said that they told him that machine will not detect liquid cocaine in the stomach. “The Venezuelan who gave me the drug told me that it will be difficult for machine to detect liquid cocaine that is ingested. I ingested 70 wraps of the drug using water because I was desperate. It is not that drug trafficking is a good thing but I wanted to solve my personal problem. They promised to pay me the sum of 6,000 dollars”Egbo stated. He is married with 2 children and hails from Enugu State. He attended Ogbete River Primary School, Coal Camp, Enugu.
Ejimbe Christian who hails from Anambra State said that he teaches English at a Language School in Venezuela. He is single and claimed to have lived in Caracas, Venezuela for eight years. According to him, “I am a 2002 graduate from the University of Maiduguri. I excreted 54 wraps and they promised to pay me 4 million naira. My intention was to get married and settle down”. He attended Good Shepherd Nursery and Primary School Nnewi and Federal Government College Okigwe. He travelled out of the country in search of greener pasture in 2004.
