The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA) Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja has intercepted 21.9kg of cocaine by the NDLEA on Monday in Abuja.
According to the agency’s Spokesman, Deputy Commander of Narcotics (DCN) Jonah Achema, the two unaccompanied and unclaimed suit cases were discovered after the arrival of Ethiopian Airline, ET 910 in Abuja from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with name tags, Akomaye Ife and Nze Lusaka .U.
He said; “during the inward clearance of the flight, the vigilant officers of the Command became suspicious upon noticing that the two brief cases were abandoned on the conveyor belt without any of the passengers claiming them.”
According to him, the command formally contacted the station Manager of Ethiopian Airline and the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO Aviance) being the handler for the Airline, indicating the suspicion of the agency on the suitcases after days of no claim.
He said; “I placed a standing order that NDLEA should be invited before the luggage would be released to the owner or in the event that the luggage would be returned to the point of embarkation.”
“The Airline officials, including the baggage handler along with the Department of State Services, Aviation Security and Nigeria Customs Service were invited to NDLEA Office where the search was conducted”.
According to report, the first unclaimed suit case contained three blankets out of which two contained parcel of transparent nylon which housed whitish substances suspected to be hard drugs.
Also,the second unclaimed suit case contained twenty-two packet shirts, one parcel of drug was concealed in each of the shirts and covered with a blue carbon paper containing a transparent nylon.
The substances were field tested and proved positive for cocaine, with the first suite case weighing 10.750kg, while the second suite case weighed 11.150kg.The drugs weighed made a total of 21.9kg.
The NDLEA Airport commander, Kabir Sani Tsakuwa said, investigation was ongoing and that the Command was currently liaising with Ethiopian Airline to get more information in order to unravel the identity of the couriers.
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