By Deborah Nnamdi
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 30-year-old Brazilian woman, Ingrid Benevides, with 30.09 kilograms of heroin concealed in factory-sealed coffee packs at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The agency disclosed this in a statement on Sunday by its spokesman, Femi Babafemi, who said the illicit drugs have an estimated street value of over ₦3 billion. He said the suspect was intercepted on Friday after arriving in Abuja on a Qatar Airways flight, following intelligence-led surveillance.
According to the NDLEA, Benevides, who is a private security officer in Brazil, had packed the drugs in 21 factory-sealed packs of Brazilian coffee placed in two checked-in bags. Babafemi said that when the coffee packs were opened, they were found to contain white substances which later tested positive for heroin.
The agency described the seizure as the single largest heroin haul ever recorded at the Abuja airport. During her preliminary interview, the suspect reportedly claimed she brought the heroin under the guise of visiting Nigeria for holidays.
In a related operation at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, NDLEA operatives intercepted two passengers, Adediran Adedoyin and Afatakpa Ochuko, on January 20 while they were en route to Istanbul, Turkey, aboard a Turkish Airlines flight. Babafemi said the suspects were found with a total of 3,990 pills of tapentadol 250mg and tramadol 225mg concealed in food items packed in their luggage.
Meanwhile, operatives of the NDLEA Marine Command intercepted a wooden boat loaded with 44 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud cannabis weighing 1,848 kilograms at Jakande Beach, Lekki, Lagos, in the early hours of January 22. Babafemi said the consignment had just arrived from Ghana when officers, acting on credible intelligence, stormed the area around 1 a.m. and recovered the drugs along with the boat.
In Kaduna State, the NDLEA also arrested two suspects, Aminu Baba, 20, and Abdulrasheed Abubakar, 28, in connection with the seizure of two bags containing 140 packets of explosives intercepted along the Kaduna–Zaria highway. Babafemi said the explosives were recovered from a commercial bus, while the suspects were arrested during follow-up operations in Kano and Kaduna.
