- One of the men was detained at Port Harcourt International Airport on 2 February
Nigerian anti-narcotics officials have intercepted two suspected drug traffickers attempting to smuggle heroin into the country, authorities said on Sunday.
One of the men, 30-year-old Onyekwonike Elochukwu Sylvanus, was detained at Port Harcourt International Airport on 2 February after arriving on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha via Abuja. A body scan confirmed he had ingested drugs, and he later excreted 62 wraps of heroin, weighing 1.348kg. Investigators say he had been trafficking drugs across multiple countries since 2017.
A second suspect, 48-year-old James Herbert Chinoso, was arrested a day earlier at Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport after arriving from Madagascar via Addis Ababa. He expelled 63 wraps of heroin, totaling 909 grams.
The arrests are part of a wider crackdown by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). In Lagos, officers seized two parcels of a synthetic cannabis strain known as ‘Loud,’ weighing 2.82kg, imported from the US. In Kano, two suspects were caught with 15,396 tramadol pills hidden inside a gas cylinder, while another was arrested with 15kg of cannabis in Sabon Gari.
In Kogi State, officers intercepted a consignment of 12,800 tramadol pills bound for Jigawa and arrested a suspect. Another man was caught with 65 parcels of ‘Colorado,’ a potent synthetic cannabis strain, weighing 1.6kg.
Authorities say the NDLEA is intensifying efforts to disrupt trafficking networks and bring offenders to justice.