The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, said its operatives thwarted an attempt by 26-year-old Esther Onyinyechi Uzodinma to swallow 76 wraps of cocaine hours before her return flight to the South Asian country through the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, MAKIA, Kano.
NDLEA identified Uzodinma as a 200-level nursing student at Noida International University, Uttar Pradesh, India.
According to the agency, Esther was scheduled to return to Delhi, India, from MAKIA Kano on Qatar Airways flight 1432 on Friday, 17th January 2025, but was arrested in her room at 11:30 pm on Thursday, 16th January, at Royal Park Hotel Sabon Garin Kano, while awaiting the cocaine consignment she was to ingest before her flight the following morning.
Femi Babafemi, Director of Media & Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, made this known in a statement issued on Sunday.
Babafemi said that luck ran out for the suspect when NDLEA operatives, on patrol along the Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi State on Thursday, 16th January, intercepted 31-year-old Cosmas Okorie in a commuter bus coming from Lagos en route to Kano.
He disclosed that inside the suspect’s black polythene bag was an audio speaker, which concealed 76 pellets of cocaine weighing 1.340 kilograms that he was going to deliver to Esther in Kano. A swift follow-up operation in Kano led to the arrest of the female nursing student later that same day.
The NDLEA spokesman stated that Esther, in her statement, claimed the drug cartel she was working for recruited her in India and paid for her trip to Nigeria to enjoy her Christmas and New Year holidays.
According to her, quoting NDLEA’s statement, to avoid her parents knowing she was in Nigeria, she did not travel to her home state, Imo, but was lodged for two weeks in a hotel in Enugu, from where she was flown to Abuja and then Kano, where she was lodged at Royal Park Hotel to swallow the 76 pellets of cocaine sent to her from Lagos before taking her Qatar Airways flight to India on Friday morning.
Babafemi also disclosed that the suspect said she was promised over $5,000 upon successful delivery of the illicit consignment in India.
Details later……