NDLEA nabs 50-year-old businessman with 90 wraps of cocaine

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 50-year-old businessman identified as Osuoha Christian Iheanacho at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu for ingesting 90 wraps of cocaine.

This was revealed in a signed statement by the agency’s Director, Media and Advocacy on November 24, 2024.

Osuoha was intercepted on Wednesday 20th November 2024 at the arrival hall of the Enugu airport during the inbound screening of passengers arriving from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on an Ethiopian airlines flight following months of surveillance on him.

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After his arrest, he was closely monitored for several days because authorities had strong reasons to believe that he had swallowed illegal drugs. During this time, he underwent a process known as excretion observation, which is implemented to keep track of any substances that may have been ingested. Over the course of seven separate occasions, he passed a total of 90 small pellets that were found to contain cocaine. The total weight of all the cocaine that he had swallowed was 2.019 kilograms. This monitoring was crucial in gathering evidence against him and ensuring that no harmful substances remained in his body.

Investigation reveals that the suspect who operates phone and accessories business in Lagos and Gabon, Central Africa, travelled by road from Gabon to Douala, Cameroon from where he took a flight to Addis Ababa where he swallowed the pellets of cocaine while in transit and thereafter continued his journey to Enugu with Lagos as his final destination.