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At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) agents seized a sizable shipment of methamphetamine camouflaged in powdered custard canisters.
Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA's director of media and advocacy, confirmed the discovery in a statement released on Sunday in Abuja. He said the shipment, which had a street value of N567 million and weighed 30.10 kg, was discovered by the agency's agents on Tuesday at the SAHCO export facility inside the airport.
In a follow-up operation, the operatives also arrested a freight agent named Nwobodo Chidiebere and a woman named Chioma Lucy Akuta, while the suspect in charge of the shipment, Charles Chinedu Ezeh, was apprehended on May 18 at the Sotel Suites in the Lagos neighborhood of Amuwo Odofin.
According to the spokesman, "Ezeh informed the NDLEA agents that he is a businessman who trades in goods in Onitsha, Anambra State. Investigations, however, showed that he had been living in London with his wife and kids up until December 10, 2022, when he fled to Nigeria as a result of his involvement in a drug-related offense in the United Kingdom.
"Although the suspect claimed he had been staying in hotels since arriving in Nigeria in December of last year, on May 19 operatives found his residence at No. 1 Hawawu Abikan Street in Lekki, where a search was carried out and his travel and property records, among other things, were found."
