Businessman arrested with cocaine at Lagos airport while travelling to Spain

A 50-year-old businessman based in Spain, Francis Akajobi, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos.

Akajobi, who was wearing a shirt bearing a Catholic group insignia, was apprehended at Terminal 2 while attempting to board a Royal Air Maroc flight to Madrid, Spain.

According to NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, two parcels of cocaine weighing 1.20 kilograms were discovered concealed in the soles of Akajobi’s sandals.

The arrest took place on Thursday, July 25, 2024. During initial questioning, Akajobi reportedly claimed he received the consignment at a bar in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and was to deliver it to a friend in Spain for a fee of €5,000.

In a related incident, another suspect, Makinde Lekan, was arrested in connection with the seizure of 99 parcels of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis. The parcels, weighing 51.60 kilograms, arrived at the SAHCO Imports shed of the Lagos airport on a Turkish Airlines flight from Canada via Istanbul, Turkey.

Additionally, operatives of a Special Operations Unit targeting opioid smuggling syndicates arrested Chukwuema Obodzie, one of the alleged kingpins, at Cele bus stop along Oshodi-Apapa Express Road in Lagos. Obodzie was found with 100,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg loaded in two bags after arriving from Ghana. His arrest followed five months of surveillance.

In Osun State, NDLEA operatives raided the Owena forest in Oriade LGA on Friday, July 26, arresting 17 suspects and destroying 31,250 kilograms of cannabis on 12.5 hectares of farmland. They also recovered 84 kilograms of processed cannabis sativa and a single-barrel Dane gun.

In Kaduna State, during a stop-and-search patrol along the Kaduna-Zaria highway on Saturday, July 27, operatives intercepted 32-year-old Ubada Aliyu with 573 rounds of 7.60 live ammunition, which she claimed were intended for delivery to bandits in Sokoto.

Another suspect, Godwin Udochkwu, 35, was arrested for possession of 25,000 ampoules of Pentazocine injection, and Alkasim Mikailu, 35, was apprehended in Kano following the seizure of 37,880 ampoules of Diazepam injection along the Abuja-Kaduna highway.