Drug courier abandons heroin at Lagos Airport .

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, yesterday said that drug syndicate abandoned a 9.270kg of heroin originating from Pakistan at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos.

This is just as the agency said a 38-year-old auto parts dealer, Mr. Ohagwu Earnest Ifeanyi, who attempted boarding a Qatar Airlines flight to China with 735 grammes of heroin hidden in his stomach, was also arrested.

The heroin, which weighed 10.005kg, is valued at over N80 million. The agency claimed that it discovered the drug inside an abandoned luggage on the conveyor belt during inward screening of passengers on an Emirate flight.

A statement signed by the agency’s spokesman, Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju, stated that the seizure was a good way to start the year. Ofoyeju said: “This is a good start for us, considering the value of the drug.

The heroin seizures comprising 9.270kg imported from Pakistan and 735 grammes ingested by one Ohagwu Earnest Ifeanyi weighed 10.005kg. The suspect was arrested following a positive test for drug ingestion.”

On the drug suspect, Ofoyeju said Ifeanyi, who hails from Enugu State, was arrested when he wanted to smuggle drugs out of the country.

The suspect allegedly confessed that he smuggled the drugs in order to recover from a financial loss of N2 million.

The suspect was quoted as saying: “I sell auto parts at Onitsha where I live with my wife and two children My involvement in drugs was to enable me recover from the N2 million loss I incurred in my business.

My friend in China was the one that introduced me into drug trafficking.

They were to pay me the sum of $2,500. They gave me the heroin to swallow in a hotel room in Lagos, but I was arrested at the airport.” Commenting on the arrest, the Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, said the drug seizure underscored a rise in the nation’s counter-narcotics campaign.

Giade said: “Drug cartels only abandon their highly valued drugs when it becomes impossible to beat security checks.

This seizure clearly underscores the agency’s steady progress in counter-narcotics operations.