Drug kingpins nabbed at Lagos, Port Harcourt airports excreting heroin wraps
Abdullateef Fowewe
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has revealed that two drug bigwigs have excreted 125 wraps of heroin at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and the Port Harcourt International Airport.
The NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, noted that this was as operatives foiled attempts by both of them to smuggle the consignments into Nigeria through the airports.
Babafemi said one of the suspected kingpins, who uses dual identities to aid his cross-border movements, was identified as Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus, 30, remarking that the suspect also possesses a Sierra Leonean passport with a different name: Kargbo Mohamed Foday.
Babafemi revealed Sylvanus 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 Qatar Airways Flight from Doha through Abuja to Port Harcourt.
A body scan confirmed that Sylvanus had ingested illicit drugs, and he was subsequently placed under excretion observation.
During this period, he expelled a total of 62 wraps of heroin in five excretions, weighing 1.348 kilograms.
According to the statement, investigations revealed that Sylvanus alternates between his two identities for different drug trafficking missions between Thailand, Pakistan, Iran, and West African countries.
The suspect claimed to have ventured into the illicit drug trade in 2017 after his clothing and shoe business collapsed.
The second suspected kingpin, James Herbert Chinoso, 48, was arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Saturday, February 1, 2025, upon his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
After a body scan confirmed the presence of illicit drugs in his system, Chinoso was placed under excretion observation, during which he egested 63 wraps of heroin weighing 909 grams, as revealed by Babafemi in the statement.
Chinoso had left Lagos for Madagascar on January 26, 2025, and returned via Addis Ababa after spending a week.
He claimed to have ventured into the illicit drug trade after his phone accessories business in Liberia collapsed.
The statement partially reads, “In a related development, NDLEA operatives intercepted two parcels of 2.82 kilograms of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, imported from the United States with Lagos as the destination. The parcels were seized at a courier firm in Lagos on Thursday, February 6, 2025.
“On the same day, anti-narcotics officers intercepted 80 ampoules of pentazocine injection weighing 225 grams concealed in cartons heading to Canada at a different logistics company in Lagos.
“In Kano, NDLEA operatives arrested two suspects, 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.
“On the same day, operatives arrested a female suspect, Choima Okeke, 35, with 27 blocks of skunk, a strain of cannabis weighing 15 kilograms, at Sabon Gari area of Kano.
“A consignment of 12,800 pills of tramadol 250mg heading to Shuwarin in Jigawa State was intercepted by NDLEA officers on patrol along Kabba-Obajana Highway in Kogi State on Saturday, February 8, 2025. A suspect, Salisu Basiru, 33, was arrested in connection with the seizure.
“Similarly, 65 parcels of Colorado, a strong synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 1.600 kilograms, were recovered from another suspect, Rufai Hassan, 32, at the same checkpoint on the same day.”
However, the NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended the officers and men of the MMIA, PHIA, DOGI, Kano, and Kogi Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures, expressing 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.
