- Safiu Kehinde
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has nabbed two drug kingpins in separate operations at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers.
The drug smugglers were arrested by the NDLEA operatives in foiled attempt to smuggle into Nigeria consignments of heroin.
As contained to a statement issued on Sunday by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the duo excreted a sum total of 125 wraps of heroins following their arrest.
One of the kingpins, according to the statement, used dual identities to aid his cross border movements.
He has a Nigerian passport with his original name: Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus, 30, and that of Sierra Leone with a different name: Kargbo Mohamed Foday.
In his failed getaway, Slyvanus was intercepted by NDLEA officers with his Sierra Leonean passport on Sunday 2nd February 2025 at the Port Harcourt airport, Rivers state during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight from Doha through Abuja to Port Harcourt.
He was subsequently taken for body scan which confirmed he ingested illicit drugs and thereafter placed under excretion observation during which he expelled a total of 62 wraps of heroin in five excretions, weighing 1.348 kilograms.
Further investigation revealed that Onyekwonike Sylvanus (alias Kargbo Mohamed Foday) alternated his two identities for different drug trafficking missions between Thailand, Pakistan, Iran and West African countries.
He claimed to have gone full time into the illicit drug trade in 2017 when his clothing and shoe business went down.
On the other hand, the second kingpin, James Herbert Chinoso, was arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Saturday 1st February upon his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
After a body scan confirmed illicit drug in his system, the 48-year-old was placed under excretion observation during which he egested 63 wraps of heroin with a total weight of 909 grams.
According to the statement, Chinoso had left Lagos to Madagascar on 26th January 2025 and returned via Addis Ababa after spending a week.
He claimed to have gone into the criminal trade after his phone accessories business in Liberia collapsed.
In similar development, the NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) intercepted two parcels of 2.82 kilograms of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis imported from the United States with Lagos as destination,
The consignment was discovered at a courier firm in Lagos on Thursday 6th February.
In another interdiction operation same day but in a different logistics company in Lagos, NDLEA anti-narcotics officers intercepted 80 ampoules of pentazocine injection 225grams concealed in cartons heading to Canada.