NDLEA nabs Iran-bound woman concealing cocaine in private parts, stomach at PH airport
A Nigerian woman, Ihensekhien Miracle Obehi, was arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Port Harcourt International Airport while attempting to smuggle a significant volume of cocaine to Iran.
Disguised in a hijab and bearing narcotics hidden in her body and handbag, Obehi’s arrest marked one of several major seizures made by the anti-narcotics agency across the country in a week-long offensive.
Obehi, who was intercepted on May 3, 2025, at the departure hall while boarding a Qatar Airways flight to Tehran via Doha, had concealed three wraps of cocaine in her private part, swallowed 67 pellets, and stashed two large parcels in a false compartment of her handbag.
Her arrest, according to NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, was made possible through credible intelligence and meticulous screening by operatives.
“She claimed she was to swallow 70 pellets of cocaine but after ingesting 67 pieces, she could no longer swallow the remaining three and decided to insert them into her private part,” Babafemi stated, adding that “the total weight of the three consignments hidden in different parts of her body comes to 2.523 kilograms.”
Similarly, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, intercepted a 22-year-old British national, Campell Kaizra Kofi Johannes Slifer, arriving from Thailand via Doha with two suitcases packed with 35 parcels of Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, weighing 37.6 kilograms.
The suspect, who confessed to previous convictions for drug trafficking and robbery in the UK, admitted to being recruited in London to courier the consignment.
The crackdown continued across states with sweeping seizures and arrests.
In Niger State, a fuel truck marked ABJ 693 XU and three other vehicles were impounded on May 7 along the Suleja-Kaduna road, carrying 246 bags of skunk, totaling 3,047 kilograms.
Four suspects were arrested: Christopher Onyema, 47; Benedict Etineruba Young, 54; Chukwudi Ujue Jerry, 30; and Mohammed Abdullahi Danasabe.
Also, NDLEA officers in Lagos seized 109,914 pills of tramadol, swinol, and nitrazepam from two suspects in the Ijora area, while another 1.1kg Loud consignment hidden in a pillow was intercepted at a courier company.
In Kaduna, 52.5kg of skunk was confiscated from two young suspects in Gwantu, Sanga LGA.
On the Kwara axis, operatives on patrol at the Bode Saadu-Jebba expressway on May 5 arrested Rufai Nasiru with 45,400 pills of tramadol 225mg, while in Bauchi State, 505kg of skunk was intercepted in a Toyota Tundra Jeep, leading to the arrest of two suspects.
In Kano, 775 litres of codeine syrup were recovered during a raid on a drug den at Rijiyar Zaki, resulting in the arrest of Hafizu Isa Uman, 34, and Ismail Shehu, 48.
Commending the coordinated efforts across states, NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), praised the respective commands and charged them to remain relentless in balancing drug supply reduction with demand-side advocacy.
“The synergy across our commands is yielding impressive results in our war against drug abuse,” Marwa noted, as he highlighted ongoing WADA (War Against Drug Abuse) advocacy campaigns conducted nationwide, from schools in Sokoto and Anambra to mosques in Oyo State.
The NDLEA’s latest operations underscore the agency’s growing intelligence capabilities and unrelenting drive to dismantle complex drug trafficking syndicates within and beyond Nigeria’s borders.
