A 50-year-old Brazil-based Nigerian businessman has been detained by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for allegedly importing 700g of cocaine.

The NDLEA’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

Mr Babafemi said that operatives of the agency on Friday November 29 arrested and detained the suspect at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

He said that the suspect, who had lived in Brazil for 35 years, returned home with the cocaine buried in his stomach.

This, he said, was a discovery made following his arrest by NDLEA operatives.

Mr Babafemi said that the suspect was arrested at the E-Arrival hall of the Lagos airport upon his return from Sao Paulo, Brazil on Ethiopian Airlines flight via Addis Ababa.

He said, “When he was taken for body scan, the result confirmed that the suspect had foreign objects concealed in his stomach. As a result, he was placed under excretion observation during which he expelled 29 wraps of substances that tested positive to cocaine weighing 700grams. In his statement, the suspect claimed he operates an African store in Brazil where he sells provisions, shoes and clothes.”

He explained that he bought the illicit consignment in Sao Paulo to resell in Nigeria with a view to raising substantial capital to boost his business.

Meanwhile, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Investigation and General Investigation, on November 26 intercepted two consignments containing cocaine and pentazocine injection.

Mr Babafemi said that the consignments were going to the United Kingdom via a courier company in Lagos.

He added, “While the cocaine weighing 200g was concealed in local fabrics, 40 ampoules of pentazocine injection weighing 110grams were hidden in cartons.’’

(NAN)