India-bound bizman nabbed with 9.40kg heroin in Lagos

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have arrested a businessman, Kingsley Celestino, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos over 9.40kgs of heroin concealed in false bottoms of his two travelling bags.

Kingsley, a business class passenger on a Qatar Airline flight, was arrested at Terminal 2 of the MMIA on Saturday 4th March on his way to India.

Though a native of Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra State, the 49-year-old was travelling with a Guinean international passport.

A spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, said on Sunday in Abuja that preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect frequently travels to India on business class tickets.

“He claimed he deals in the clothing business between Nigeria and India. It was further established that he obtained the Guinean international passport in Guinea Bissau, where he said his mother came from,” Babafemi said.

Also, a 24-year-old passenger travelling to Oman, Etounu Monday, was intercepted at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja on Monday 27th February during the outward clearance of Ethiopian Airline flight ET 950 while attempting to export 1.924kg of skunk concealed in cream tubes.

In the same vein, at the Tincan seaport, Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Friday 3rd March, recovered 244 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 79kgs concealed in medium size wooden sound system speakers packed inside two out of four used vehicles in a container marked CRSU9258348 coming from Toronto via Montreal, Canada.

The imported vehicles used as cover for the drugs are a 2009 Jeep Wrangler and a 2009 Honda Ridgeline.

Similarly, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) attached to courier firms in Lagos intercepted a consignment of nine parcels of methamphetamine concealed in native black soap, Dudu Osun, heading to Europe.

Equally, no fewer than 778,190 pills of pharmaceutical opioids including tramadol and a drum of 270kgs Methylene Chloride were recovered by operatives from a suspect, Eric Pepe Yohanna, 33, in Jalingo, Taraba State on Monday 27th February following credible intelligence.

Also seized from him is a Daylong tricycle used in distributing the illicit substances.

(TNT)