The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), says it has intercepted a 42-year-old Indian woman, Ms. Neetu Neetu, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, North Central Nigeria, with 72 parcels of heroin deceptively packaged as chocolates and cleverly concealed in wafer wraps.
NDLEA in a statement on Sunday by its spokesman, Femi Babafemi, disclosed that the illicit consignment, weighing a total of 11 kilogrammes, was uncovered during a meticulous search, following intelligence-led surveillance.
The suspect, Ms. Neetu, who arrived on a Qatar Airways flight QR1431 from Bangkok, Thailand, via Vietnam and Doha, was apprehended at the Airport’s arrival hall on Friday, March 14, 2025.
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), while reacting to the high-profile arrest, disclosed that drug syndicates are increasingly hiring foreign nationals, including white women, to smuggle hard drugs across Nigerian borders.
“This interception is a clear indication that traffickers are desperate and will go to any length to disguise their operations.
“However, our vigilant operatives, equipped with modern technology and intelligence, continue to thwart these dangerous schemes,” Marwa said.
In yet another operation, a 45-year-old suspect, Michael Ogundele, was caught in Kano on Thursday, March 20, transporting a 50-litre steel gas cylinder stuffed with 50,000 pills of tramadol (225mg).
The suspect was nabbed at Gadar Tamburawa along the Zaria-Kano road following a coordinated intelligence operation.
Officers had to cut open the cylinder using welding tools before the concealed drugs were extracted.
In another breakthrough, a female suspect, Khadijah Abdullahi (40), was apprehended on Tuesday, March 18, with a staggering 424 bottles of codeine-based syrup in the Lungun Bulala Yalwa area of Kano.
