Brazil returnee hides cocaine in candies, cream

Men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have arrested a Brazil returnee, Agbasi Prosper, with 105 parcels of cocaine concealed in candies at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, on Christmas Day.

The suspect was nabbed at the ‘D’ Arrival Hall of the MMIA during inward clearance of passengers from Sao Paulo, Brazil, via Doha, on Qatar Airways, on Sunday, December 25, 2022.

The agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, said an initial search of the suspect’s two bags did not reveal anything incriminating but NDLEA officers took a second look at his duty-free shopping nylon bags containing packs of candies.

Babafemi noted that a thorough examination of the bags revealed that the packs of candies concealed 105 parcels of cocaine weighing 2.8 kilograms and 43 grams of cannabis.

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He said, “Preliminary test conducted on a plastic bottle of body lotion also found in possession of the suspect also tested positive to cocaine with a total weight of 472 grams. Married to a Brazilian lady with a daughter, Prosper, who claimed to be into clothing business in Brazil, was hoping to sell the drug in Enugu, his state.

“Meanwhile, three other traffickers were arrested by operatives with a total of 256kg of illicit substances seized from them during interdiction operations in Kwara, Kogi and Niger states in the past week.

“A team of NDLEA officers on stop-and-search duty along Ilorin-Jebba highway on Monday, December 26, arrested a suspect, Idris Saeed, 19, with 60 blocks of compressed cannabis sativa weighing 30kg; their colleagues in Niger State on a similar operation along Jebba-Mokwa Road also recovered 240 blocks of the same substance weighing 168kg from multi-coloured sacks loaded in a Peugeot J5 bus, with registration number MAG 146 XA, coming from Lagos and going to Kano for delivery.

“In Kogi State, NDLEA operatives also intercepted a truck coming from Onitsha, Anambra State, to Maiduguri, Borno, along Okene-Abuja highway where 9,900 ampoules of pentazocine injection (42kgs) were recovered on Saturday, December 24.”