Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested two drug kingpins at the Port Harcourt International Airport and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, who excreted a total of 125 wraps of heroin.
According to a statement by the agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, one of the kingpins uses dual identities to facilitate his cross-border movements.
Babafemi said the suspect holds a Nigerian passport under his original name, Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus, 30, and a Sierra Leonean passport under a different name, Kargbo Mohamed Foday.
“He was intercepted by the 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 a Qatar Airways flight from Doha via Abuja to Port Harcourt.
“He was subsequently taken for a body scan, which confirmed he had ingested illicit drugs. He was then placed under excretion observation, during which he expelled a total of 62 wraps of heroin in five excretions, weighing 1.348 kilograms.
“Investigations revealed that Onyekwonike Elochukwu Sylvanus (alias Kargbo Mohamed Foday) alternates between his two identities for different drug trafficking missions between Thailand, Pakistan, Iran, and West African countries.”
Babafemi stated that the suspect confessed to having gone into the illicit drug trade full-time in 2017 after his business collapsed.
“He claimed to have gone full-time into the illicit drug trade in 2017 when his clothing and shoe business failed,” the statement read.
Babafemi said the second kingpin, James Chinoso, 48, was arrested by the NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Saturday, February 1, upon his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
He stated that after a body scan confirmed the presence of illicit drugs in his system, he was placed under excretion observation, during which he egested 63 wraps of heroin with a total weight of 909 grams.
“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 criminal trade after his phone accessories business in Liberia collapsed,” Babafemi added.
In addition, two parcels containing 2.82 kilograms of Loud —a synthetic strain of cannabis imported from the United States and destined for Lagos— were intercepted by the NDLEA operatives from the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation at a courier firm in Lagos on Thursday, February 6.
In another operation the same day but at a different logistics company in Lagos, Babafemi said anti-narcotics officers intercepted 80 ampoules of pentazocine injection, weighing 225 grams, concealed in cartons and heading to Canada.
In Kano State, Babafemi reported that the NDLEA operatives arrested Usaini Salisu and Yahaya Mu’azu, both 23 years old, on Monday, February 3, at Gadar Tamburawa along Zaria Road, where 15,396 pills of tramadol were recovered from a gas cylinder used to conceal the consignment.
“In another operation the same day, operatives nabbed a female suspect, Chioma Okeke, 35, with 27 blocks of skunk —a strain of cannabis— weighing 15 kilograms at the Sabon Gari area of Kano.
“A consignment of 12,800 pills of tramadol 250mg, destined for Shuwarin in Jigawa State, was intercepted by the NDLEA officers on patrol along the Kabba-Obajana Highway in Kogi State on Saturday, February 8. A suspect, Salisu Basiru, 33, was arrested.
“Similarly, no fewer than 65 parcels of Colorado —a strong synthetic strain of cannabis— with a total weight of 1.6 kilograms, also heading to Jigawa State, were recovered from another suspect, Rufai Hassan, 32, at the same checkpoint on the same day,” Babafemi said.
