By Kamsi Anayo
A 63-year-old Chinese grandma Ting Hung Kiong attempting to smuggle large consignment of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis into Nigeria, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)
Femi Babafemi, NDLEA’s spokesman made the disclosure on Sunday.
He said the female Chinese national who naturalised in Malaysia was arrested on May 17 upon her arrival in Nigeria from Thailand via Dubai, UAE, aboard an Emirates Airline flight.
She was intercepted by NDLEA operatives attached to the Terminal 2 Arrival Hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.
Investigation revealed that the suspect travelled from Malaysia to Thailand and subsequently to Nigeria via the UAE with two large travel boxes containing the synthetic cannabis consignment weighing 31.0 kilograms.
During an interview, the suspect who claims she works as a caregiver in Malaysia stated that her daughter sponsored her trip from Malaysia to Thailand and subsequently to Nigeria.
She further disclosed that she spent two weeks in Thailand, before she was handed the illicit consignment at the Thailand airport to deliver in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, another major shipment of illicit drug consignment has been recovered at the import shed of the Lagos airport.
Following close monitoring of the consignment by NDLEA operatives since its arrival from India aboard an Emirates Cargo flight, the 29 large cartons containing One Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ten (1,825,710) tablets of Tapentadol 250mg, worth N2,190,852,000 were eventually handed over to the NDLEA by the Customs Service on May 22..
In another successful interdiction operation, NDLEA operatives at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu on May 20 intercepted a suspect Onyeka Valentine Emeka during the inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sierra Leone via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When placed under observation, the suspect excreted a total of 185.36 grams of cocaine.
At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, a 29-year-old building engineer, Babatunde Prosper Afekhide was on May 21 arrested while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Abuja via Addis Ababa to Milan Malpensa, Italy.
A search conducted on his luggage led to the recovery of 10,280 pills of Tramaking 225mg; Tramadol 200mg and Tapentadol 250mg. The opioids were concealed using foil paper and hidden inside a carton, in a suitcase, obviously to evade detection.
