The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, identified as Will Jessica Ann in Abuja over attempt to use her three-year-old son as cover to smuggle 5.75 kilograms of heroin into Nigeria.
The suspect was arrested on Monday, July 6, 2026 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, during the arrival screening of passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR1433 from Doha.
According to the NDLEA, officers discovered 14 large blocks of heroin concealed inside two pieces of luggage linked to the suspect after she initially denied travelling with any checked baggage.
The agency said further checks revealed that the baggage tags matched the claim tags attached to her passport. She subsequently admitted ownership of the bags, claiming she had forgotten she checked them in.
The suspect told investigators she travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
However, intelligence gathered by the agency indicates that she is part of a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating between Cambodia and South Africa alongside her husband or partner, identified as Jan Coenraad De Jager.
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos arrested a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle rider, Onyechere Daniel Chinadu, after he arrived from Madagascar via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
According to the agency, officers recovered 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed inside clothing packed in his backpack during a search conducted on June 28, 2026.
During interrogation, the suspect said he had worked as an commercial motorcycle rider in the Oke-Afa area of Lagos for 15 years before being recruited into drug trafficking by a friend based in Uganda.
He claimed he swallowed several pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before embarking on a journey to Madagascar to deliver the consignment but was denied entry by immigration authorities upon arrival.
His alleged sponsor, identified as Ozor Igo, subsequently rerouted him to Lagos, where he was arrested.
Due to the suspect’s inability to state the exact number of drug pellets he had ingested, NDLEA placed him under observation.
Between his arrest and July 1, he excreted 13 additional wraps, bringing the total recovery to 100 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.715 kilograms.
Meanwhile, at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos, NDLEA said it intercepted 8,287 nylon bags of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, weighing 4,143.5 kilograms with an estimated street value of over N10.3 billion.
The seizure was made during a joint examination of a container imported from Canada by NDLEA officers, the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies on Friday, July 10, 2026.