The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, identified as Ms. Will Jessica Ann, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, after officers found she had allegedly concealed 14 large blocks of heroin weighing 5.75 kilogrammes in her luggage, using her three-year-old son as cover to evade security checks.
NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi said in a statement that the suspect was arrested by agency officers on Monday, July 6, during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR 1433 from Doha to Abuja.
Suspect Initially Denied Owning the BagsAccording to the statement, the woman initially denied travelling with check-in bags. However, operatives quickly established that two bags containing the drugs bore tags matching the claim tags attached to her passport.
She then admitted ownership of the bags, claiming she had forgotten she had checked them in.She told operatives she had travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
Intelligence gathered ahead of her arrest indicates she is a member of a transnational drug trafficking organisation operating alongside her husband or partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager, who is based in Cambodia.
The pair reportedly run their drug network along the Cambodia-South Africa axis.
Okada Rider Arrested With Ingested Methamphetamine PelletsIn a separate operation, NDLEA officers at the Terminal 2 arrival hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, intercepted a commercial motorcycle operator known as an “Okada rider,” 48-year-old Onyechere Daniel Chinadu, on June 28, following his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
A search of his checked-in backpack led to the discovery of 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed within clothing. In his statement, Onyechere said he had worked as an Okada rider in the Oke-Afo area of Lagos for 15 years before a Uganda-based friend recruited him into drug trafficking.
He said he had ingested the recovered pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before setting off on a planned journey to deliver the consignment in Madagascar. Upon arrival there, he said, immigration authorities denied him entry. His friend and sponsor, Ozor Igo, based in Uganda, then rerouted his flight to Lagos, where NDLEA officers eventually arrested him.
Total of 100 Wraps Recovered After Days of Observation The statement noted that Onyechere was unable to state the exact number of pellets he had ingested in Uganda. As a result, he was placed under excretion observation for three days.
Between his arrest and July 1, he excreted 13 additional pellets, bringing the total to 100 wraps of methamphetamine, with a combined gross weight of 1.715 kilogrammes.
