Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a woman, Ihensekhien Obehi, at the Port Harcourt International Airport for attempting to smuggle 2.523 kilogrammes of cocaine into Iran using an elaborate concealment strategy involving her body and personal belongings.
According to a statement issued by NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi, the suspect, who wore a hijab in an apparent attempt to avoid suspicion, was intercepted on Sunday, May 3, 2025, during routine security checks at the airport’s departure hall while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Iran via Doha. The arrest followed credible intelligence.
A thorough search revealed that Obehi had inserted three wraps of cocaine in her private part, concealed two large parcels in the false bottom of her handbag, and swallowed 67 pellets of the illicit drug. She was immediately placed under medical observation, and over the course of several days, she excreted all 67 swallowed wraps. Obehi reportedly confessed that she had been instructed to ingest 70 pellets but was unable to swallow the last three, which led her to hide them vaginally.
In a related operation, NDLEA officers at Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos arrested a 22-year-old British national, Campell Slifer, on May 2. Slifer, who was arriving from Thailand via Doha, was caught with two suitcases filled with 35 parcels of Loud, a potent strain of cannabis weighing 37.6 kilogrammes. He admitted to having prior convictions for drug trafficking and robbery in the UK and claimed he had been recruited in London to transport the drugs.
Elsewhere in Niger State, NDLEA officers intercepted a fuel truck and three other vehicles on May 7 along the Suleja-Kaduna road. The vehicles were found to be carrying 246 bags of skunk, totaling over 3,047 kilogrammes. Four suspects—Christopher Onyema (47), Benedict Etineruba (54), Chukwudi Ujue (30), and Mohammed Danasabe—were arrested.
Further seizures across the country included:
- 109,914 pills of tramadol, swinol, and nitrazepam in the Amukoko area of Lagos;
- 52.5 kilogrammes of skunk from suspects in Gwantu, Kaduna State;
- 45,400 pills of tramadol 225mg from a suspect on Bode Saadu-Jebba expressway, Kwara;
- 505 kilogrammes of skunk intercepted in a Toyota Tundra on Bauchi-Gombe road, with two suspects arrested;
- 775 litres of codeine syrup recovered in Kano from two suspects;
- 1.1 kilogrammes of Loud concealed in a pillow intercepted at a Lagos courier company.
Babafemi emphasized that these coordinated efforts reflect NDLEA’s intensified crackdown on drug trafficking networks across Nigeria and beyond.
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