Nigeria’s anti-narcotics agents have arrested a 34-year-old Brazilian returnee with 9.150kg of cocaine, worth £3.8m concealed in the soles of foot wears he is importing into the country.
According to Vanguard, the arrest of the Enugu State-born suspect, identified as Okolo Emenike, was made at the weekend, during the inward screening of passengers on a Turkish airline flight from Brazil, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Commander at the Abuja Airport, Hamisu Lawan, reported Vanguard, explained that the discovery of the drugs, with an estimated value of 3.8 million pounds, which is close to half a billion Naira, was the last arrest made in year 2016.
Lawan said: “The discovery was made in a shipment of shoes during inward screening of passengers on a Turkish airline flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil. The cocaine was industrially concealed in the soles of new foot wears.”
“The seizure is a validation of enhanced capacity of officers due to series of training programmes carried out by the agency,” the Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Col. Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (rtd).
The confiscation of the drug, he said was with the assistance of the United States government, European Union and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
“This is just a tip of the iceberg, because as the benefits of these training begin to manifest, more drugs shall be detected and cartels dislodged in the days ahead,” he added.
Emenike explained that he smuggled the ban substance to Nigeria due to that “I was equally confronted with the fear of deportation. This made me desperate for quick wealth.”
“In the process, I met my childhood friend, who offered me N1million to traffic cocaine to Nigeria. “He also paid for my ticket and gave me three bags of shoes containing the cocaine. But on arrival at the Abuja airport, the cocaine was detected and I was arrested. I had wanted to invest money offered to me in my business that failed due to recession,” he stated.
