The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, identified as Will Ann, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 5.75 kilograms of heroin into Nigeria through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The agency said the suspect was arrested on Monday, July 6, shortly after arriving in Nigeria aboard Qatar Airways Flight QR1433 from Doha. According to the NDLEA, she was travelling with her three-year-old son when operatives intercepted her during the inward clearance of passengers.
The agency disclosed that the woman allegedly concealed 14 large blocks of heroin inside two suitcases and initially denied travelling with any checked baggage.
The arrest was announced in a statement issued on Sunday by the Director of Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi.
According to the statement, the suspect’s attempt to distance herself from the luggage failed after officers matched the baggage tags with the claim tags attached to her passport.
The agency said the discovery forced her to admit that the suitcases belonged to her.
“Though 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,” the statement said.
During interrogation, the suspect reportedly told investigators that she travelled from Cambodia through Doha before arriving in Abuja.
However, the NDLEA said intelligence gathered during its investigation suggested that the suspect was allegedly working for a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating between Cambodia and South Africa.
According to the agency, the network is believed to involve her husband and alleged accomplice, Jan Coenraad De Jager.
The Abuja arrest was one of several major operations carried out by the anti-narcotics agency across the country in recent days.
In another operation at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, NDLEA operatives arrested a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle rider, Onyechere Chinadu, after he arrived from Madagascar through Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
The agency said an initial search of the suspect’s backpack uncovered 87 wraps of methamphetamine carefully hidden inside his clothing.
Investigators later discovered that he had also swallowed several pellets containing the hard drug before travelling.
According to the NDLEA, the suspect confessed that he had worked as an okada rider in Lagos for about 15 years before he was recruited into drug trafficking by an associate based in Uganda.
He reportedly admitted ingesting methamphetamine pellets in Uganda before beginning a journey to Madagascar, where he was expected to deliver the illegal drugs.
The operation, however, did not go as planned after authorities in Madagascar denied him entry into the country.
The agency said his sponsor then instructed him to travel to Lagos, where NDLEA officers arrested him immediately after his arrival.
Because the suspect could not accurately state the number of pellets he had swallowed, the agency placed him under medical observation.
Between the day of his arrest and July 11, he reportedly excreted 13 additional pellets, bringing the total recovery to 100 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.715 kilograms.
In what appears to be one of the agency’s biggest seizures in recent months, NDLEA operatives also intercepted a massive shipment of synthetic cannabis at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos.
The agency said officers recovered 8,287 bags of Canadian Loud, a strong strain of synthetic cannabis, weighing 4,143.5 kilograms.
The seized drugs have an estimated street value of more than N10.3 billion.
According to the NDLEA, the drugs were concealed inside a container imported from Canada.
The agency said the shipment was intercepted during a joint examination involving NDLEA officers, the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies after weeks of intelligence gathering and surveillance.
“The discovery followed weeks of targeted tracking and monitoring of the shipment since its departure from Montreal, Canada, by operatives of the Maritime Intelligence Unit of NDLEA in close collaboration with the Apapa Strategic Command of the Agency,” the statement said.
The agency also announced another successful operation in Lagos, where operatives foiled an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk to Cyprus.
According to the NDLEA, the drugs had been carefully concealed inside a gas compressor and were intercepted at a courier company before they could be shipped out of Nigeria.
Beyond its enforcement activities, the agency said it continues to intensify its campaign against drug abuse through public education and community engagement.
It disclosed that its commands across the country sustained the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign with sensitisation programs in secondary schools across Ebonyi, Kano, Ekiti and Ogun states.
The agency said the advocacy campaign is aimed at educating young people about the dangers of drug abuse and discouraging them from involvement in illegal drug activities.
As part of the campaign, the leadership of NDLEA Zone 14 Command also paid an advocacy visit to the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, to strengthen cooperation in the fight against illicit drugs.
Nigeria has remained an important transit point for international drug trafficking because of its strategic location and busy airports and seaports. Over the years, criminal networks have attempted to move heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and cannabis through the country to destinations in Africa, Europe and Asia.
In response, the NDLEA has stepped up intelligence gathering, surveillance and collaboration with local and international law enforcement agencies to disrupt drug trafficking networks.
The agency has also expanded its preventive programs, arguing that reducing drug demand through education is as important as arresting traffickers.
Commending officers involved in the latest operations, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, retired Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa, praised the various commands for combining aggressive enforcement with public sensitisation.
Marwa urged officers across the country to remain committed to the agency’s mandate and warned them against becoming complacent despite recent successes.
He charged them “not to rest on their past laurels” in the ongoing fight against illicit drug trafficking and substance abuse, stressing that sustained vigilance remains essential to protecting Nigeria from the dangers posed by illegal drugs.