By Kamsi Anayo
A 30-year-old Italy-based businessman Joseph Cyril has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA) Enugu.
He ingested 98 wraps of cocaine while heading to Italy via Addis Ababa and France.
Femi Babafemi, Director, Media and Advocacy NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja made the disclosure in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
The suspect who was nabbed at the departure hall of the airport on Aug. 2 during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET930, was subsequently placed on excretion observation during which he excreted 98 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.510 kilograms.
Investigations revealed that Cyril had arrived Nigeria from Italy on July 13 and ingested the drug in a hotel in Awka, Anambra State before proceeding to Enugu to board his flight to Europe on Aug. 2.
“In his statement, he claimed he has been doing business in Italy for years before agreeing to traffic the drug consignment for a fee of 3,500 Euros in order to raise money to relocate to Germany where his family is based,” Babafemi stated.
Also attempts by some drug trafficking syndicates to export 1.2 kilograms of cocaine concealed in 25 pieces of phone chargers going to Saudi Arabia were thwarted by NDLEA operatives at a courier firm in Lagos.
A similar bid to send 500 grams of the same class A drug hidden in the false bottom of a backpack to Italy was equally aborted in another logistics company by NDLEA officers on Aug. 3, while a consignment of 2.3kg Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, coming from the United States was intercepted in another shipping company in Lagos on Aug. 4.
