BY Ebunoluwa Olafusi
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says its operatives have foiled an attempt by drug traffickers to smuggle 10.89 kilograms of cocaine into the country through a Qatar Airways flight.
Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokesman, said this in a statement issued on Sunday.
Babafemi said the illicit drug was hidden in seven children’s duvets, packed in an unaccompanied bag from Brazil.
In the same vein, he said the agency also intercepted travellers’ cheques in various foreign currencies of over N1.1billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.
A traveller’s cheque is a pre-printed, fixed-amount cheque designed to allow the person signing it to make an unconditional payment to someone else as a result of having paid the issuer for that privilege.
It is used as an alternative to cash.
Babafemi said a suspect, Oguma Uchenna, has been arrested in connection to the attempt to export the cheques.
The cheques, he said, were neatly concealed inside four bound hardcover books, disguised as academic project literature, to the United Kingdom.
He said the financial instruments, suspected to be counterfeits, were discovered on April 27 at the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc (NAHCO) export shed of the Lagos airport.
He explained that the discovery was made during cargo examination of some consignments meant for exportation to the UK on a cargo flight.
“A breakdown of the cheques shows they have monetary values of two hundred and eighty-seven thousand, six hundred and twenty-three dollars, thirty-one cent ($287, 623.31),” he said.
“One million, four hundred and fifty-six thousand, three hundred Canadian dollars ($1,456,300) and One million, two hundred and ninety-seven thousand, eight hundred (1,297,800) euros.
“This is with a total value of one billion, one hundred and fifty-seven million, six hundred and seventy thousand, four hundred and sixty-nine Naira and ninety-two kobo (N1,157, 670,469.92).”
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