Two Qatar-based drug kingpins, Eyah Celestine Nnamdi, alias Murphy, and Ugwuoke Peter Oluchukwu have been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) following interception of their methamphetamine consignment at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja Lagos. Femi Babafemi, the spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency in a statement disclosed that Ugwuoke was the first to be apprehended on June 9, during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways passengers at the departure point, Terminal 2 of the Lagos airport.
According to Babafemi the NDLEA officers discovered that the suspect was traveling to Doha with an Ivorian international passport with the name Hien Narcisse, noting that a further scrutiny of his black carry-on luggage led to the discovery of a false bottom concealment of two parcels of crystalline substance that tested positive to methamphetamine weighing 1 kilogramme.
He added that preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect “is a Nigerian who had gone to obtain an Ivorian passport for his travels,” stressing that the suspect confessed that he travelled to Qatar in August 2022, and returned from the Arab nation about two months ago to conclude arrangement for the movement of the drug.
The spokesman said further probe led operatives to discover that his Qatar-based senior partner in the trade simply identified as Murphy was lurking around in Eziani, his home town in Nsukka local government area of Enugu State, Ugwuoke claimed he holds a National Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Federal Polytechnic Oko.
Babafemi said a prompt deployment of NDLEA operatives on 10th June to Eziani community of Nsukka local government area of Enugu State, led to the arrest of ‘Murphy’ whose true identity was later discovered to be Eyah Nnamdi, who had lived in Indonesia for some years before relocating to Doha, Qatar. Anti-narcotic officers also arrested a female pharmacist, Ikwebe Ori in Kaduna following her attempts to use forged documents to purchase and distribute six cartons of pentazocine injection with 2,000 ampules.
Ori was said to have confessed that she used fake documents of a Kaduna hospital to order the drug, which she planned to distribute in Kaduna, Abuja and Sokoto.
The consignment was initially intercepted at the local wing of the MMIA, Ikeja while being sent to Kaduna by a freight agent.
NDLEA operatives in Niger state also confiscated a total of 1,072 kilograms of cannabis in two raids. On Thursday, June 15, 726kg of the illicit substance was recovered at Oyoyo filling station along Kaduna-Abuja express road where four suspects Aminu Mohammed, 50, Nasiru Mohammed, 30, Rabiu Haruna, 29, and Hamza Abubakar, 18 were arrested.
The next day, operatives intercepted a Mercedes 1422 truck marked MKD 116ZM on its way from Umunede, Delta state with gallons of palm oil to be delivered at Garki market in Abuja.
Babafemi revealed that the truck driver, Jekwe Udenze, 38, along with his two assistants Gabriel Nzekwube, 43, and Chima Uzoma, 42, stopped over at Uromi, Edo State and loaded 19 jumbo bags of cannabis weighing 346kg, to be delivered at Dumez Luxury Park along Kaduna road, Suleja to Ignatius Mokwe, 47.
Both the driver and his two assistants as well as the owner of the illicit consignment, Ignatius Mokwe have been arrested.