Italy-based businessman excretes 98 cocaine wraps at Enugu airport

An Italy-based businessman, Joseph Cyril, 30, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, after ingesting 98 wraps of cocaine.

The suspect was arrested on August 2 during the outward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Addis Ababa, from where he was scheduled to continue to France and Italy, and subsequently excreted the 98 wraps weighing 1.510 kilograms.

According to the NDLEA, investigations showed that Cyril arrived in Nigeria from Italy on July 13 and ingested the cocaine at a hotel in Awka, Anambra State, before travelling to Enugu to board his flight.

Cyril reportedly told investigators that he had agreed to traffic the drugs for 3,500 euros to raise money to relocate to Germany, where his family is based, adding that he had been doing business in Italy for several years.

Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives in Lagos intercepted 1.2 kilograms of cocaine concealed in 25 phone chargers bound for Saudi Arabia and another 500 grams hidden in a false-bottom backpack bound for Italy, while 2.3 kilograms of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, was intercepted in a consignment from the United States.

In Ondo State, operatives intercepted a truck carrying 1,633 kilograms of skunk concealed in bags of rice shafts along the Akure-Ilesha Expressway and arrested two suspects, Buba Jamilu, 40, and Sanusi Ibrahim, 30, while another 147 kilograms was recovered from Ita Ogbolu forest.

Similarly, NDLEA operatives recovered 731.03 kilograms of skunk from a warehouse in Elebure village, Orire Local Government Area, Oyo State, arresting Felicia Thompson, 57, while 604.5 kilograms was seized in Edo, 88.5 kilograms from a wanted drug dealer in Badagry, Lagos, and 7 kilograms from a drug joint in Abia.

At the Tincan port complex in Lagos, NDLEA officers and other security agencies also intercepted 73 cartons containing 442 packets of cannabis-infused cookies and gummies weighing 309.4 kilograms, while the agency continued its War Against Drug Abuse sensitisation campaigns across schools and communities, with its chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commending the officers involved and urging them to sustain the agency’s balanced approach to drug control.