NDLEA Arrests Brazilian Woman With ₦3bn Heroin at Abuja Airport

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted a 30-year-old Brazilian woman at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, with 30.09 kilograms of heroin valued at over ₦3 billion. The suspect was arrested on Friday, January 23, upon her arrival from Brazil aboard a Qatar Airways flight, QR1431, following credible intelligence. According to a statement issued on Sunday by the NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Mr Femi Babafemi, the illicit drugs were concealed in factory-sealed packs of Brazilian coffee. Babafemi disclosed that a search of the suspect’s two checked bags revealed 21 sealed coffee packs which, upon further examination, were found to contain white substances that tested positive for heroin. The seizure, weighing 30.09 kilograms, is the largest single heroin haul recorded at the Abuja airport. During preliminary interrogation, the suspect, a private security officer in Brazil, claimed she travelled to Nigeria under the guise of a holiday. In a related operation, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, intercepted two passengers on Tuesday, January 20, en route to Istanbul, Turkey. The suspects were found with 3,990 pills of tapentadol and tramadol concealed in food items packed in their luggage. Meanwhile, NDLEA’s Marine Command seized 44 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud cannabis weighing 1,848 kilograms from a wooden boat at Jakande Beach, Lekki, Lagos, in the early hours of January 22. The Agency also intercepted two bags containing 140 packets of explosives along the Kaduna–Zaria highway, leading to the arrest of two suspects in Kano and Kaduna. NDLEA said its nationwide War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaigns continued across schools and communities during the week.