The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested an India-bound passenger, Freeman Charles Ogbonna, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos for ingesting 80 wraps of cocaine.
However, the drug trafficking risk almost took his life.
Agency Spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said on Sunday in Abuja in a statement, that Ogbonna was arrested a week earlier on Sunday March 31 while attempting to board his flight to Delhi, India via Doha on Qatar Airways.
According to Babafemi, the suspect, with a Liberian international passport bearing the name: Carr Bismark, was subsequently taken for a body scan, which tested positive for ingestion of illicit drugs.
Babafemi narrated: “Preliminary checks revealed his real identity as Freeman Charles Ogbonna; and (he) was subsequently placed under observation in NDLEA custody where he started to manifest signs of discomfort. Obviously choked by the volume of illicit drugs in his stomach and another substance taken to hold back excretion.
“The suspect soon began to retch before starting to vomit and excrete wraps of cocaine he ingested almost simultaneously.”
He also said that the suspect who claimed he was recruited into drug trafficking by one of his relatives eventually passed out a total of 80 wraps of cocaine weighing 889 grams through his mouth and anus over a period of four days.
Ogbonna confessed he was given the drugs to swallow at a hotel in Ipodo area of Ikeja with a promise to reward him with N300,000 cash if he successfully delivers the consignment in India.
