Two drug barons, apprehended by personnel of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have excreted a total of 125 ingested wraps of heroine, weighing a cumulative
2.257kg.
The anti-narcotics agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, said the arrests were made at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt, Rivers state and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos.
One of the kingpins, whose original name is Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus, uses dual identities to aid his cross border movements, with a Nigerian passport bearing his original name and that of Sierra Leone with a different name: Kargbo Mohamed Foday. He was intercepted by the anti-narcotics agency officers with his Sierra Leonean passport on Sunday 2nd February 2025 at the Port Harcourt airport, during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight from Doha through Abuja to Port Harcourt.
Elochukwu was subsequently taken for body scan which confirmed he ingested illicit drugs. He was then placed under excretion observation, during which he expelled a total of 62 wraps of heroin in five excretions, weighing 1.348 kilograms.
Investigation reveals that Elochuckwu Sylvanus (alias Kargbo Mohamed Foday) alternates his two identities for different drug trafficking missions between Thailand, Pakistan, Iran and West African countries. He claimed to have gone full time into the illicit drug trade in 2017 when his clothing and shoe business collapsed.
The second kingpin, James Herbert Chinoso, was arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Saturday, 1st February upon his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
After a body scan confirmed illicit drug in his system, he was placed under excretion observation during which he egested 63 wraps of heroin with a total weight of 909 grams.
It was gathered that Chinoso had left Lagos to Madagascar on 26th January 2025 and returned via Addis Ababa after spending a week. He claimed to have gone into the criminal trade after his phone accessories business in Liberia crashed.
In Kano, NDLEA operatives on Monday, 3rd February arrested Usaini Salisu and Yahaya Mu’azu, both 23 years old, at Gadar Tamburawa along Zaria road, where 15,396 pills of tramadol were recovered from a gas cylinder used to conceal the consignment.
In another operation same day, operatives nabbed a female suspect, Choima Okeke, 35, with 27 blocks of skunk, a strain of cannabis weighing 15kg, at Sabon Gari area of Kano.
Furthermore, a consignment of 12,800 pills of tramadol 250mg going to Shuwarin in Jigawa state, was intercepted by NDLEA officers on patrol along Kabba-Obajana highway in Kogi state on Saturday 8th February with a suspect, Salisu Basiru, 33, arrested. Similarly, no fewer than 65 parcels of Colorado, a strong synthetic strain of cannabis with a total weight of 1.600kg also heading to Jigawa state, were recovered from another suspect, Rufai Hassan, 32 at the same check point same day.
Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization activities to schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week.
These include: WADA enlightenment lecture to students and staff of Saint Secondary School, Abakaliki, Ebonyi; Taangayar Malam Abubakar Bichi, an Almajiri school, Bichi, Kano; Federal Government Girls College, Calabar, Cross River; College of Nursing and Science, Birnin Kebbi; and Meiran Community Junior Secondary School, Abule Egba, Lagos state among others.
