A Nigerian based in Togo has been arrested by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, after wraps of substances that tested positive for cocaine, were discovered in the collar of his jacket.
The arrest was made shortly after the suspect disembarked from the aircraft on his way from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The 31-year old suspect, Agwu Samuel, confidently wore the jacket containing the drugs but by dint of hindsight and experience, the drugs were discovered by NDLEA officers at the airport.
This is the first discovery of cocaine inside the collar of a jacket by the anti-narcotics agency.
In his reaction, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the Agency, Col. Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (retd.), described the suspect’s action as desperately crafty and cunning.
According to him, “the cocaine was detected by officers notwithstanding the crafty and cunning mode of concealment. The agency has taken some strategic measures aimed at disappointing the tricks employed by drug trafficking syndicates. We remain committed to exposing criminal plots through superior counter-narcotic intelligence. This operational success is commendable and a demonstration of our alertness to detect drugs”.
Abdallah vowed that NDLEA will continue to invest in capacity building programmes for its officers.
Shedding light on how the suspect was arrested, the NDLEA commander at the Lagos airport, Ahmadu Garba, said that Samuel was arrested during routine check on passengers.
“Ten wraps of cocaine weighing 110 grammes were found inside the collar of his jacket during screening of passengers on a South Africa Airline flight from Brazil through Johannesburg. The drug, which was carefully hidden inside his jacket, tested positive for cocaine and investigation is ongoing”, he said.
Samuel, a shoe seller in Togo, who claimed to have attended Technical Secondary School in Ohafia, Abia State, in his statement, said that he went to Brazil in search of greener pastures but resorted to drug trafficking due to frustration.
According to him, “I use to sell shoes in Togo until I lost goods worth N3 million. This negatively affected my business and made me to travel to Brazil in a desperate search for greener pastures. After a fruitless search for job in Brazil for four months, I decided to smuggle drugs to get some money to start my shoe business. I thought the drugs will not be detected inside my jacket but I was caught and I am very sad”.
