Woman uses 3-year-old son as cover to smuggle heroin into Abuja — NDLEA

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, Will Jessica Ann, for allegedly using her three-year-old son as cover in an attempt to smuggle 5.75 kilograms of heroin into the country through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi said in a statement on Sunday that operatives arrested the suspect on Monday, July 6, while screening passengers on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha.

He said she was found with 14 blocks of heroin concealed in her luggage.

According to the agency, the suspect initially denied travelling with checked-in bags. Still, operatives matched the baggage claim tags to her passport, after which she admitted ownership, saying she had forgotten she checked them in.

She said she had travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.

The NDLEA said preliminary intelligence links her to a transnational drug syndicate she allegedly runs with her husband, Jan Coenraad De Jager, from Cambodia along a Cambodia–South Africa trafficking route.

Okada rider held after excreting 100 wraps of meth

In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, arrested a commercial motorcycle rider, Onyechere Daniel Chinadu, 48, on June 28 after he arrived from Madagascar via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

A search of his checked-in backpack led to the recovery of 87 wraps of methamphetamine hidden in clothing.

Babafemi said Onyechere, who claimed to have spent 15 years as an okada rider in Lagos’ Oke-Afo area, told operatives he was recruited into drug trafficking by a Uganda-based associate.

He said he swallowed the drug pellets in Uganda before setting out for Madagascar, but was denied entry there by immigration officials and rerouted to Lagos by his sponsor, identified as Ozor Igo.

Placed under observation for three days, he excreted 13 additional pellets, bringing the total recovered to 100 wraps weighing 1.715 kilograms.

At the Apapa seaport, NDLEA operatives, working with the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies, intercepted 8,287 nylon bags of a high-grade cannabis strain known as “Loud,” weighing 4,143.5 kilograms and valued at more than N10.3 billion.

The consignment, shipped from Montreal, Canada, was intercepted on Friday, July 10, following weeks of tracking by the agency’s Maritime Intelligence Unit.

Separately, the agency said it foiled an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk concealed in a gas compressor bound for Cyprus through a Lagos courier firm.

The NDLEA said its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign continued across the country during the week, with lectures held at schools in Ebonyi, Kano, Ekiti, and Ogun states.

The agency’s Zone 14 Command also paid an advocacy visit to Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara in Port Harcourt.

NDLEA Chairman Brig-Gen. Mohamed Marwa (retd) commended officers involved in the operations and urged personnel nationwide not to relent in their supply reduction efforts.