Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have arrested a man and a woman who posed to be a husband and wife with drugs.
The suspects, who identified themselves as Onyebuchi Ilonzeh and Nonyelum Ilonzeh, purportedly going for medical treatment in India, were arrested for ingesting 184 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.322Kg with 100grams of the drug also concealed in the woman’s private part.
The two suspects were said to have been intercepted at Screening Point 1, Terminal 1 of the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on Tuesday, August 1, 2023, while attempting to board an Ethiopian airline flight to India.
The spokesperson for the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists on Sunday.
“Though their travel documents show consistency in their names and depict them as a couple, an NDLEA officer however decided to subject them to a body scan. The scan confirmed they both ingested drugs as a result of which they were later placed on excretion observation at the agency’s facility.
“While their travel documents identify the man as Onyebuchi Ilonzeh and the lady to be Nonyelum Ilonzeh, preliminary investigation revealed that the intending passengers were not a couple but obtained the travel documents in the same surname to beat security checks at the airport. The lady later gave her real name as Nkechi Ngogbike.”
The spokesperson for the NDLEA noted that Ilonzeh was later discovered to be a drug suspect currently on bail.
Babafemi added, “A further search of the agency’s crime database revealed that he also obtained his travel documents with a fake identity for the trip. Indeed, it was established that he was arrested by the NDLEA operatives at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja on March 19, 2022, for ingesting 100 wraps of cocaine weighing 2.243kgs upon his arrival from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on board an Ethiopian airline flight.
“His travel documents then contained his real name Ikenna Uwaezuoke. After his arrest at the Abuja airport on March 19, 2022, along with another suspect, Iro Uche who also ingested 65 wraps of cocaine with a gross weight of 1.376kgs, Uwaezuoke was subsequently arraigned before Justice Zainab Abubakar of the Federal High Court Abuja with charge number: FHC/ABJ/CR/438/2022.
“He was eventually granted bail by the court pending the conclusion of his trial. He is still on the court bail when he was arrested at the Lagos airport for a similar offence on Tuesday, August 1.”
While Ikenna Uwaezuoke aka Onyebuchi Ilonzeh excreted a total of 82 wraps of cocaine with a gross weight of 1.822Kg in five excretions, Ngogbike Nkechi aka Nonyelum Ilonzeh excreted 101 wraps in four excretions with a big size wrap of the substance recovered from her private part, all weighing 1.50kgs.
Babafemi further noted that during her interview, Ngogbike confessed that she was recruited in her church in Aba, Abia State where she lives.
Meanwhile, the NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, attached to courier companies in Lagos have intercepted various quantities of dextromethorphan mixed with heroin; methamphetamine; dimethyl sulfone and cannabis concealed in different objects going to Europe.
