A statement by the NDLEA spokesman, Mr. Ofoyeju Mitchell, on Sunday said Patrick was allegedly found to have ingested the cocaine consigment weighing 1.270kg while being deported from Afghanistan on May 18, 2010. The statement said that Patrick was the first deportee ever to test positive for drug ingestion, adding that it was "a situation narcotic officials described as strange."
Speaking on the case, the NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, Alhaji Ahmadu Giade, said his officers would continue to thwart attempts by drug cartels to use Nigeria as a drug transit point. Giade said, "Ordinarily, who would expect a drug deportee who has served a jail term for drugs to be deported with drugs in his stomach? We shall therefore remain vigilant to stop the next move of drug barons."
Eight other persons were arrested on different dates with narcotics weighing a total of 10.185kg, it said. The NDLEA Commander at the airport, Alhaji Hamza Umar, gave the names of eight other suspects recently arrested as Popoola Adete, 50, who allegedly ingested and inserted in her anus cocaine weighing 840 grammes; Bolanle Mustapha, 63, who ingested 1.420kg cocaine; Onyeze Chukwudi, 47, allegedly with 1.185kg cocaine; Ndigwe Chukwuma, 47, who allegedly ingested 1.405kg cocaine; and Nmah Chukwu, 47, that ingested 1.130kg cocaine..
Others are Smith Romeo, 32, ingested 1.360kg cocaine; Nwafor Stephen, 35, ingested 1.555kg cocaine; and Alekusho Ekundayo, 56, ingested cocine weighing 1.290kg. The statement said that Adete, a mother of six who owns a restaurant in Paris, was apprehended on May 18, 2010. She allegedly claimed that it was one of her customers that lured her into the illicit trade.
Ekundayo, who described herself as a petty trader, claimed to have ingested 80 wraps of illicit drugs. The suspect, who sells children's clothes and jewellery at Mokola, Ibadan, was reportedly intercepted by a scanning machine as she tried to travel to Paris on an Iberia flight. Upon further search, she was also found to have inserted another wrap weighing 200 grammes in her private part.
Latifu, who is 63, is the oldest drug traffickers arrested this year at the airport, the statement said. The textile and jewellery merchant at Balogun market, Lagos allegedly confessed to ingesting 100 wraps of illicit substances and was arrested on May 1, 2010 on the same flight with Alekusho on their way to France. He was allegedly given the sum of €2,000 and was to receive another €2,000 on successful delivery, the NDLEA spokesman said.
Onyeze was apprehended on the same day while attempting to board an Air France flight to Paris enroute to Finland. Onyeze, who has lived in Finland for nine years, had been importing office equipment into Nigeria for sale. Onyeze told NDLEA interrogators that he suffered a big loss in 2008 and had not recovered from the problem, adding that he ingested drugs based on influence from a friend in Europe.
He said, "My phone number was given to somebody in Nigeria. Since I arrived from Finland last month, we have been talking until I was finally given the drugs. I swallowed 60 pieces for €2,500. I am married with a child."
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