A 23-year-old
alleged drug trafficker, Okoguale Douglas, has excreted 59 wraps of heroin
weighing 781.2 grammes, following his arrest at the Nnamdi Azikiwe
International Airport, Abuja, while trying to board a Milan, Italy bound
flight.
Douglas,
who hails from Uromi in Esan North-East Local Government area of Edo State, was
arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA),
during an outward clearance of Ethiopian Airline flight number 910 at the
boarding gate of the airport en route Abuja-Addis Ababa- Milan (Italy) after
being scanned, which proved positive for ingestion.
Under
interrogation, he claimed he had been residing in Italy since 2011 after
entering the country via Libya with one of his uncles.
He
said he works as a restaurant attendant in Italy where he earns 900 Euro per
month and also works as a painter on his free days and gets about 400 Euro upon
completion of any work. He also confessed he was promised 2,000 Euro if he
successfully delivers the drug to Milan, Italy.
He
said he came to Nigeria on April 4, 2021 for the burial of his late father in
Esan, Edo State, and after spending so much during the burial, he ran out of
money, a situation that made him to ask for financial support from one of his
Nigerian friends resident in Italy.
He further claimed
that his friend then told him he would send him money on the ground that he
would collect a consignment for him from one other friend of his in Nigeria. To
facilitate that, he promised to send him a number to call.
He
said contrary to the initial arrangement, he was called by a man on Thursday
April 29, 2021 who asked him to come down to Abuja where he was picked by two
other unknown men from Utako area and lodged in a hotel whose address he
claimed he does not know.
The suspect also
claimed that the two men brought the wrapped drug to him in a hotel on Friday
night after which he swallowed the 59 pellets early on Saturday May 1, 2021 and
was promised 2000 Euro on successful delivery to Milan, Italy.
Commander,
NAIA Command of the Agency, Kabir Sani Tsakuwa, said efforts were still ongoing
to unravel other suspects connected with the crime.
Chairman/Chief Executive
of the NDLEA, Brig-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd) commended the officers and
officers of the airport command for their resilience and charged them as well
as their counterparts across the country to remain vigilant, especially with
the coming holidays, to ensure that no single gramme of illicit drug is
smuggled in or out of Nigeria.
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