Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested two friends with 19.8kg of illicit drug, Cannabis Sativa, during an attempt to smuggle the recovered drugs to the United Arab Emirates.
The suspects, Obidike Maureen and Ohakwe Sandra, who are currently being investigated by NDLEA officials, were arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. Maureen, however, maintained innocence, asserting that she only wanted to travel out of the country for business purposes.
She said, “My friend did not tell me she had drugs in the luggage she checked in with my name. She told me that it was all foodstuffs but it turned out to be cannabis. I feel very sad.”
The suspect insisted that she was on her way to Dubai to buy clothes, but her friend smuggled the recovered drugs into her luggage and checked them in, in her name.
Crime and Security gathered that Maureen had thought that her relationship with Sandra, who sells foodstuffs in Dubai, would help her in realising her dream of becoming an international trader. Sandra also confessed to have smuggled the goods in her friend’s luggage without her consent and added that the drugs were meant to be delivered to her travel agent in Dubai who had promised to facilitate visa for her.
Sandra narrated that: “I started exporting foodstuffs to Dubai in 2012. Each time I go to Dubai, I stay for two months and come back because I have no permanent visa. I came to Nigeria in December 2014 to spend Christmas and New Year at home.”
She continued that “while I was preparing to go back, my travel agent in Dubai called me that somebody would give me a parcel to take to him. My first question was that I hope it was not cocaine, and he said that it was not cocaine but weed and that it was not something serious. He also promised me that if I could take it to him, he would prepare my next visa for free. So, I agreed to take it.”
The suspect, a graduate of Economics from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology confessed that “Maureen is my friend. We met in Port Harcourt and had been chatting since. She told me she would like to visit Dubai to buy clothes because she sold female clothes. We concluded that we would both travel to Dubai when I would return in January 2015.”
Sandra also stated that “Since I had only hand luggage, I decided to check in some of my luggage in her name because I had 80kg and did not want to pay the excess charge. Unfortunately, NDLEA discovered drugs in the luggage I checked in her name and we were both arrested. I regret accepting to take the drug.”
NDLEA commander at the Lagos airport, Umar Hamza, confirmed the arrest of the ladies and added that 78 parcels of dried weed were discovered in one of Maureen’s luggage.
He added that the suspects carefully tucked the weeds among foodstuff and packages of herbal drink and that only painstaking efforts of the officials of the agency led to the discovery of the cannabis.
Source: Tribune
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