NDLEA nabs ex-footballer, 72-year-old grandma, others in major drug raids
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a former Nigerian international footballer, a 72-year-old grandmother, and several others in sweeping anti-narcotics operations carried out at strategic entry points across the country.
The operations, which spanned multiple states and involved targeted surveillance, resulted in the seizure of over 22.6 kilograms of illicit substances, including cocaine, methamphetamine, tramadol, and skunk.
A statement by NDLEA’s Director Media and Advocacy, Mr Femi Babafemi on Sunday in Abuja said that Hunkarin was arrested alongside his business partner Ntoruka Chinedu.
The former footballer, Segun George Hunkarin, was arrested alongside a businessman, Ntoruka Emmanuel Chinedu, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, following intelligence-led surveillance.
Chinedu had arrived from Turkey via Ethiopian Airlines on June 24 and was intercepted at the arrival terminal with 37 wraps of cocaine weighing 800 grams concealed in his hand luggage. Investigations revealed that the illicit consignment was picked up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and was intended for onward delivery in Lagos, where Hunkarin was already waiting in the car park to receive it.
The ex-international, now in custody, admitted to previous involvement in drug trafficking during his professional football career in South America, including deliveries from Brazil to Ethiopia.
In a separate operation at the same airport, NDLEA agents arrested a logistics operator, Amen Okoro Godstime, who attempted to smuggle 5,000 pills of Tramadol 225mg hidden in fake malaria drug packages labelled as Lonart, Amatem, and Aluktem.
Okoro was scheduled to board a Royal Air Maroc flight to Spain via Casablanca and confessed that the consignment was meant to be forwarded to Italy for sale, with stops in France along the route.
Also, NDLEA operatives at Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu apprehended a bar attendant, Ezenwaka Chibuzor Emmanuel, who arrived from Johannesburg on June 27 aboard Ethiopian Airlines.
His luggage was found to contain 17 parcels of methamphetamine weighing 17.5 kilograms and three parcels of cocaine weighing 3.05 kilograms, carefully hidden inside bedsheets. On the same flight, another suspect, Azu Follygan Kpodar, aged 54 and based in São Paulo, Brazil, was caught attempting to import 1.25 kilograms of liquid cocaine disguised in a liquid soap container. Kpodar claimed he had obtained the drug while shopping for his upcoming wedding in Nigeria.
Further arrests occurred at the Seme border, where a Beninese national, Vode Jean-Luck, aged 26, was caught with 69 balls of skunk weighing 29.5 kilograms while attempting to smuggle the substances into Nigeria from Benin Republic.
In Kwara State, notorious drug baroness Mary Bolanle Oladele, widely known as “Iya Nafi,” was arrested in a targeted raid on her base in Omu-Aran. Several quantities of skunk, tramadol, and flunitrazepam were recovered during the operation. Meanwhile, in Delta State, NDLEA agents apprehended a 72-year-old woman, Mrs Christy Ejaro, at the Niger CAT area of Warri with multiple sachets of skunk already packaged for retail distribution.
As these enforcement operations intensified, the agency continued its nationwide War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaign with educational outreach in schools across Katsina, Oyo, Abia, Enugu, Bayelsa, and Ekiti states.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended the swift coordination and diligence of the agency’s teams across all zones, including Lagos, Enugu, Delta, Kwara, and border units.
He praised the dual-track strategy of disrupting the drug supply chain while actively sensitising the public to the dangers of drug abuse, describing the latest raids as evidence of the agency’s firm resolve to rid the nation of narcotics and bring traffickers to justice.