Two Brazil returnees ‘excrete 116 wraps of heroin, cocaine’ in NDLEA custody

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says two Brazil returnees excreted 116 wraps of heroin and cocaine after days in its custody.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokesperson, said the suspected drug traffickers, Ofoma Sunday and Ukachukwu Ikechukwu, who were arrested at the Lagos airport, excreted the substances after days in observatory custody.

He said Ofoma, 46, was arrested on September 16 on his arrival from Laos, Brazil, and was taken for a body scan, which confirmed ingestion of illicit drugs.

“Ofoma had left Nigeria for Brazil on 3rd September to courier the consignment to Lagos for a reward of $2,500 upon successful delivery,” the statement reads.

Babafemi said a follow-up operation was conducted at Eliata hotel in Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos, where Ofoma was instructed to meet one Nweke Chukwudi, who was designated to oversee the excretion of the drugs at the hotel and recover them.

He said Nweke, 55, was arrested during the operation, while Ofoma excreted 111 wraps of heroin weighing 1.452 kilogrammes in eight rounds.

Babafemi said Ikechukwu was arrested on September 19 during the inward clearance of Ethiopian Airlines passengers from Brazil via Addis Ababa.

He said a body scan confirmed illicit drug ingestion, and under observation, he expelled five wraps of cocaine weighing 145 grammes.

Babafemi said in his statement that Ikechukwu confessed to having bought nine wraps of the drug in Brazil, inserting all into his anus — a process that took him nearly two hours.

“During his transit through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he said he began to experience severe anal pain and decided to remove the wraps from his body,” Babafemi said.

Babafemi said Ikechukwu admitted that he could only reinsert seven wraps and flushed the remaining two down a toilet to catch his connecting flight to Nigeria.

“The suspect revealed that while on board his flight to Nigeria, he felt pressured and uncomfortable, which compelled him to use the lavatory. During the process, he expelled an additional two wraps, leaving him with only five wraps in his anus,” he said.

Babafemi said Ikechukwu claimed he was into the clothing business before travelling to Brazil in 2017 and later moved to the United States in 2020, where he was arrested for an immigration offence, detained for over a year, and deported to Nigeria in 2022.

In March 2025, he returned to Brazil, where he currently works, having obtained a Brazilian residence permit.

‘ILLICIT SUBSTANCE CONCEALED IN BUTT PAD’

Similarly, Babafemi said one Okolonkwo Ebere Theresa, a businesswoman, was taken into custody on September 14 after aviation security officers, in collaboration with NDLEA operatives at the screening point, arrested her for attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Doha with illicit drugs concealed in her underwear.

“After a thorough search, two big parcels of white crystalline substance that later tested positive for methamphetamine with a gross weight of 1.40 kilograms were recovered from her butt pad underwear,” Babafemi said.

The NDLEA spokesman said during a preliminary interview with Ebere, she claimed she trades in used clothing and also operates a POS business in Enugu, where she was recruited into the illicit drug business.

Babafemi said on September 15, NDLEA operatives at the NAHCO export shed of the Lagos airport intercepted a consignment of food items used to conceal 40 wraps of methamphetamine with a total weight of 2.30 kilogrammes heading to Hong Kong via Turkish Airlines.

He said Umelo Venatus, a 59-year-old suspect who presented the consignment as part of a consolidated cargo, was taken into custody.

He said another consignment of illicit drugs packaged for Europe was intercepted at a courier company in Lagos on September 18.

Babafemi said during an examination of the shipment, seven pieces of phone charger going to New Zealand were found to contain 257 grammes of cocaine.

He said in Adamawa, no fewer than 233,800 pills of tramadol were recovered in three raids, with two suspects arrested in parts of the state, with a total of 195,600 pills of the opioid seized from an abandoned Toyota Sienna vehicle in the Mayo Belwa area of Yola South on September 17.

Babafemi said that while one Rita Zira, a suspect, was nabbed in the Jambutu area of Jimeta, Yola, with 27,900 pills of tramadol discovered in her bedroom, another suspect, Halilu Abubakar, 22, was arrested with 10,300 pills of the same substance at a checkpoint on September 20.

He said in a related operation, no less than 109 bags of skunk, a strain of cannabis, weighing 1,099.4 kilogrammes were seized from a suspect named Hammed Danladi Aliyu, 40, on September 20.

In Taraba, NDLEA operatives on September 17 arrested 28-year-old Anas Hamisu at Garba-Chede in Bali LGA with three sacks of skunk weighing 25.525kg.

The agency’s spokesperson said two other suspects, Babangida Usman and Ismail Ibrahim, were also caught with 14,000 capsules of tramadol along the Damaturu–Potiskum road in Yobe state.

In Edo state, NDLEA officers on September 17, destroyed two cannabis farms covering 4.53 hectares at Atororo forest in Owan west LGA, with an estimated yield of 11,330kg.

The anti-narcotics agency recovered 11 bags of processed skunk and seeds weighing 148kg, with three suspects — Mathew Onoja, 56; Moses Thomas Male, 18; and Friday Uchenjin, 38 arrested at the plantations.