NDLEA nabs Indian-bound businessman with heroin in Lagos

The Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos, is where the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) apprehended businessman Kingsley Celestino with about 9.40 kilograms of heroin allegedly hidden in false bottoms of his two travel bags.

This was said in a statement made on Sunday in Abuja by Mr. Femi Babafemi, Director of Media and Advocacy, NDLEA.

Kingsley, a business class traveler on a Qatar Airways flight, was detained on Saturday while en route to India, according to Babafemi.

The suspect, 49, was traveling using a Guinean international passport, he added, and was a native of Anambra State's Nnewi South Local Government Area.

He added that initial research had shown the suspect had frequently taken business class flights to India.

The suspect, according to Babafemi, says he transacts in the apparel industry between Nigeria and India.

“It was further established that he obtained the Guinean international passport in Guinea Bissau, where he said his mother came from,” he said.

Similarly, on February 27, Etounu Monday, a 24-year-old passenger bound for Oman, was detained at Abuja's Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA).

According to Babafemi, the suspect was detained while attempting to export 1.924kg of skunk concealed in cream tubes during the outward clearance of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 950.

Also, on March 3 NDLEA agents found 244 packets of Canadian Loud totaling 79 kilograms at the Tincan harbor in Lagos.

According to Babafemi, the illegal substances were hidden in medium-sized hardwood sound system speakers that were packed inside two out of four old cars in a container with the Canadian shipping label CRSU9258348 that was traveling from Toronto to Montreal.

“The imported vehicles used as cover for the drugs are a 2009 Jeep Wrangler and a 2009 Honda Ridgeline, ” he said. 

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