“NDLEA Busts Fake Couple Smuggling Cocaine to India.”

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have apprehended a fake couple, Mr. Ilonzeh Kingsley Onyebuchi and Mrs. Ilonzeh Roseline Nonyelum, for attempting to smuggle 184 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.322 kilograms, with an additional 100 grams concealed in the woman’s private part.

The suspects were intercepted at Screening Point 1, Terminal 1 of the international wing of the Lagos airport on Tuesday, 1st August 2023, while trying to board an Ethiopian airline flight to India. NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, stated that despite the couple’s consistent travel documents, an NDLEA officer decided to subject them to a body scan, which confirmed their drug ingestion. They were subsequently placed under excretion observation at the agency’s facility.

Further investigations revealed that the intending passengers were not a real couple, but rather obtained travel documents with the same surname to evade security checks at the airport. The woman, later identified as Ngogbike Nkechi, confessed to being recruited in her church in Aba, Abia State, for the illicit drug business trip. She revealed that her accomplice, Kingsley, delivered the cocaine pellets to her hotel room in Aba, where she ingested them on the previous day, Monday, 31st July.

During the arrest, a search on the woman led to the discovery of a 100-gram wrap of cocaine hidden in her private part. She admitted to being promised Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000) upon successful delivery of the drug in India. Kingsley, who had a clothing business in Onitsha, Anambra State, claimed he was promised Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000) for the same delivery.

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Notably, Kingsley had a previous arrest by NDLEA operatives at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja on 19th March 2022, where he was caught with cocaine wraps. He had used a fake identity, Uwaezuoke Ikenna Christian, for that trip and was granted bail pending trial. Despite being on bail, he was arrested again at the Lagos airport on Tuesday, 1st August, for a similar offense.

In addition to the fake couple’s arrest, NDLEA operatives in Lagos intercepted various quantities of drugs bound for Europe. These included dextromethorphan mixed with heroin, cannabis, and methamphetamine, concealed in different objects. Similarly, in Kano State, a woman and four men were arrested in connection with the seizure of 977.7 kilograms of cannabis sativa along Zaria-Kano road.