Spain-bound cocaine consignment recovered from businessman’s sandals at MMIA

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

A Spain based businessman, 50-year-old Francis Akajiobi, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at the departure hall of terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja Lagos, after parcels of cocaine weighing 1.20 kilograms were discovered in his pair of sandals while attempting to board his Royal Air Maroc flight to Madrid, Spain.
NDLEA in a statement issued on Sunday by Femi Babafemi Director, Media & Advocacy, said the two parcels of cocaine were concealed in the soles of a pair of black sandals Akajiobi was wearing to board his flight when NDLEA operatives intercepted him on Thursday 25th July 2024. “During his preliminary interview, he claimed the consignment was delivered to him at a bar in Port Harcourt, Rivers state and was to deliver it to his friend and neighbour in Spain for a fee of Five Thousand Euros (€5,000) upon successful delivery to the recipient.
“In the same vein, a suspect: Makinde Sodiq Lekan has been arrested in connection with the seizure of 99 parcels of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 51.60kg that arrived the SAHCO Imports shed of the Lagos airport on a Turkish Airlines flight from Canada via Istanbul, Turkey.
“Meanwhile, operatives of a Special Operations Unit targeting syndicates that specialize in shipping large consignments of opioids into neighbouring countries from where they attempt smuggling them into Nigeria in smaller quantities through transport companies, have arrested one of the kingpins, Chukwuemaka Obodozie. He was arrested in the early hours of Sunday 21st July at Cele bus stop along Oshodi-Apapa express road, Lagos with 100,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg loaded in two bags shortly after his arrival from Ghana via one of the transport companies plying the Lagos-Ghana route. The intelligence led operation followed five months of surveillance around Chukwuemeka.”