The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted a 38-year-old South African woman at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, for drug trafficking.

Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA spokesperson, announced this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

Mr Babafemi said the suspect concealed 14 large blocks of heroin weighing 5.75kg in her luggage.

He said the suspect used her three-year-old son as a cover to beat security checks and evade thorough screening.

He also said the suspect was arrested by NDLEA officers on July 6 during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR 1433 from Doha to Abuja.

“She initially denied travelling with check-in bags.

“After operatives were able to quickly establish that the two bags containing the drugs had tags which tallied with the claim tags attached to her passport, she recanted and admitted ownership of the bags, adding that she forgot she checked in the two bags.

“She claimed to have travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.

“Intelligence leading to her arrests indicates she is a member of a transnational drug trafficking organisation along with her husband/partner based in Cambodia from where they operate their drug network along the Cambodian-South African axis,” he said.

In another successful interdiction operation, NDLEA officers at the Terminal II Arrival Hall of the Muritala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, on June 28, intercepted a commercial motorcycle.

Mr Babafemi said the 48-year-old Okada rider was arrested upon his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

He said that a thorough search of his backpack, which he had checked in, led to the discovery of 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed within the clothes in his bag.

Mr Babafemi said the suspect claimed he had worked for 15 years as an Okada rider at the Oke-Afa area of Lagos before his Uganda-based friend recruited him into drug trafficking.

“He said he ingested the recovered pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before embarking on his planned journey to Madagascar to deliver the drug consignment.

“He, however, said that upon arrival in Madagascar, he was denied entry by Immigration authorities.

“As a result, his friend and sponsor based in Uganda rerouted his flight to Lagos, where he was eventually arrested by NDLEA officers,” he said.

The NDLEA spokesperson said the suspect, unable to state the exact number of pellets he ingested in Uganda, was placed under “excretion observation” for three days.

“Between the date of his arrest and July 1, he was able to excrete 13 pellets in addition to the initial 87 wraps recovered from him.

“That brought the total number to 100 wraps of methamphetamine with a gross weight of 1.715 kilograms,” he said.

(NAN)