NDLEA: Two drug kingpins excrete 125 wraps of heroin at Lagos, Port Harcourt airports

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NDLEA: Two drug kingpins excrete 125 wraps of heroin at Lagos, Port Harcourt airports

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said its operatives have foiled attempts by two drug kingpins to smuggle consignments of heroin into Nigeria through the Port Harcourt International Airport and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).

NDLEA stated that one of the kingpins, who uses dual identities to aid his cross-border movements, has a Nigerian passport with his original name—Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus—and a Sierra Leonean passport with a different name, Kargbo Mohamed Foday.

This was announced on Sunday in a statement by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media & Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja.

Babafemi disclosed that the suspect was intercepted by NDLEA officers with his Sierra Leonean passport on Sunday, February 2, 2025, at the Port Harcourt airport, Rivers State, during the inward clearance of passengers on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha through Abuja to Port Harcourt.

The NDLEA spokesman further said that the suspect was subsequently taken for a body scan, which confirmed he had ingested illicit drugs. He was thereafter placed under excretion observation, during which he expelled a total of 62 wraps of heroin in five excretions, weighing 1.348 kilograms.

According to the statement: “Investigation reveals that Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus (alias Kargbo Mohamed Foday) alternates 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.”

“The second kingpin, James Herbert Chinoso, 48, was arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Saturday, February 1, upon his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

“After a body scan confirmed illicit drugs in his system, he was placed under excretion observation, during which he expelled 63 wraps of heroin with a total weight of 909 grams.

“Chinoso had left Lagos for Madagascar on January 26, 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.”

Meanwhile, NDLEA announced that two parcels of 2.82 kilograms of “Loud,” a synthetic strain of cannabis imported from the United States with Lagos as the destination, were intercepted by operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) at a courier firm in Lagos on Thursday, February 6.

Similarly, Babafemi disclosed that anti-narcotics officers intercepted 80 ampoules of pentazocine injection and 225 grams of drugs concealed in cartons heading to Canada in another interdiction operation on the same day but in a different logistics company in Lagos.

“In Kano, NDLEA operatives on Monday, February 3, arrested the duo of Usaini Salisu and Yahaya Mu’azu, both 23 years old, at Gadar Tamburawa along Zaria Road, where 15,396 pills of tramadol were recovered from a gas cylinder used to conceal the consignment. In another operation on the same day, operatives nabbed a female suspect, Chioma Okeke, 35, with 27 blocks of skunk, a strain of cannabis weighing 15kg, at the Sabon Gari area of Kano.

“A consignment of 12,800 pills of tramadol 250mg, going to Shuwarin in Jigawa State, was intercepted by NDLEA officers on patrol along the Kabba-Obajana highway in Kogi State on Saturday, February 8, with a suspect, Salisu Basiru, 33, arrested. Similarly, no fewer than 65 parcels of Colorado, a strong synthetic strain of cannabis with a total weight of 1.600 kilograms, also heading to Jigawa State, were recovered from another suspect, Rufai Hassan, 32, at the same checkpoint on the same day,” Babafemi added.

Reacting to the development, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended the officers and men of MMIA, PHIA, DOGI, Kano, and Kogi Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures.

Marwa stated that their operational successes and those of their compatriots across the country, especially their balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts, are well appreciated.