The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has detained two businessmen and a Canada-based nurse for illicit drug trafficking at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.

NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi said in a statement on Sunday that operatives swooped on and detained them for attempting to import and export cocaine pellets and parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, through the airport.

He explained that one of the suspects, who frequented Thailand from where he claimed to be importing fish into Nigeria, was detained on October 15 when attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Thailand via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“When he was taken for a body scan, the result showed he ingested an illicit drug, which proved to be cocaine.

“As a result, he was placed under excretion observation, during which he expelled five big egg size wraps of cocaine weighing 400 grams.

“In his statement, the 51-year-old suspect confessed that he was to be paid upon successful delivery of the drug consignment in Thailand. He said he needed the money to boost his fish importation business,” Mr Babafemi said.

Similarly, Mr Babafemi said NDLEA operatives on October 17, at the Lagos airport, intercepted a 26-year-old businessman who returned from Brazil via Addis Ababa during the inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

“His body scan revealed ingestion of the illicit drug. When he was put under observation, he excreted a pellet of cocaine weighing 22 grams.

“He, however, confessed that he ingested 30 wraps of the illicit drug in Brazil but excreted 29 pellets in Addis Ababa, where he handed them over to another person. The suspect revealed that he was to be paid N2.5 million for trafficking the drug,“ Mr Babafemi added.

Meanwhile, NDLEA officers, on October 4, detained a Nigerian-Canadian nurse at the Lagos airport during the inward clearance of Air France passengers from Toronto, Canada, via Paris.

Mr Babafemi said that during a search of the suspect’s luggage, a total of 70 parcels of Canadian Loud, weighing 35.70kg, were recovered from her.

“During her interview, she claimed she was in Nigeria to meet her boyfriend, who instructed her to come with the large consignment of the highly sought-after synthetic cannabis,” he said.

(NAN)