Security/Crime

NDLEA Nabs Undergraduate Nursing Student Sponsored By Indian Drug Cartel

By Anne Osemekeh, Abuja

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a female undergraduate nursing student sponsored by an Indian drug cartel to export cocaine to the South Asian country.

The anti-narcotics agency’s spokesman, Mr. Femi Babafemi disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.

The undergraduate, Esther Onyinyechi Uzodinma, a 26-year-old 200-level student of nursing at the Noida International University, Uttar Pradesh, India, was scheduled to return to Delhi, India from Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) Kano, on Qatar Airways flight 1432 on Friday 17th January 2025, but was arrested in her room at 11:30pm on Thursday 16th January at Royal Park Hotel Sabon Garin Kano, while awaiting the cocaine consignment she was to ingest before her flight the following morning.

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Her arrest came after operatives on patrol along Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi state on Thursday 16th January intercepted 31-year-old Cosmas Okorie in a commuter bus coming from Lagos enroute Kano. Inside his black polythene bag was an audio speaker, which was used to conceal 76 pellets of cocaine weighing 1.340 kilograms, and which he was going to deliver to Esther in Kano.

A swift follow up operation in Kano led to the arrest of Esther who was waiting to receive and ingest the drugs.

In her statement, Esther claimed the drug cartel she was working for recruited her in India and paid for her trip to Nigeria for Christmas and New Year holidays. However, to keep her stay in the country hidden from her parents, Esther, rather than travel to her hometown in Imo state, lodged for two weeks in a hotel in Enugu, from where she was flown to Abuja and then Kano where she was lodged at Royal Park Hotel to swallow the 76 pellets of cocaine sent to her from Lagos before taking her Qatar Airways flight to India on Friday morning. She said she was promised over $5,000 upon successful delivery of the illicit consignment in India.

In other operations, along the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja highway, NDLEA officers arrested four suspects: Abdullahi Umar; Tijjani Samaila; Lucky Obotte and Abubakar Haruna, who were heading to Maiduguri, Borno state, Kano, and Abuja in commuter vehicles with over 38,000 pills of tramadol 225mg, 250mg and 100mg concealed in audio speakers and cloths.

In Lagos, operatives of a special operations unit of the Agency on Tuesday 14th January raided the hideout of a 59-year-old Nwokedi Emeka Jonas in Ojodu-Berger area of the state where they recovered 10 parcels of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 4.9kg as well as different paper bags he uses in dispensing the psychoactive substance in retail quantities. Printed on them include street names and codes such as ‘Dead man’; ‘Gelato top shelf smoke’; ‘Topshelf’; and ‘Gelato cake’.

Also in Lagos, operatives of the state Command of the Agency on Wednesday 15th January raided a house in Igando New Town area of Alimosho where they arrested three suspects: Isaac Vincent, 32; Ebube Ikechi, 25; and Christopher Usifoh, 43, from whom 1,610kg skunk, a strain of cannabis and 6kg pills of tramadol were recovered. Also recovered from the house were a delivery van and three other vehicles used for distributing the illicit drugs.

In Kano, two suspects: Usama Adamu, 25, and Isah Ibrahim, 29, were arrested on Friday 17th January at Dawanau, Dawakin Tofa LGA where a total of 7.6kg skunk, 78 tubes of rubber solution and 356 bottles of ‘suck and die’, a new psychoactive substance were recovered from them. In another raid, also in Kano, Usman Isa, 29, was nabbed along Zaria road with 114 blocks of skunk weighing 49.8kg.

In series of raids in Abuja, a suspect, Rufa’i Hashimu, 27, was arrested at Gwarimpa village area of the FCT with 118 bottles of codeine-based syrup, while 13 others were nabbed in other locations such as: Area1 IDP camp, Gishiri, Zuba, Dei -Dei, AYA, Lagos Street Garki, Karu, and Lugbe. Recovered from them include different quantities of tramadol, diazepam, and methamphetamine.

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