NDLEA officials nab drug lords with125 wraps of heroin at Lagos, Port Harcourt airports
Eagle eye operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have botched attempts by two drug kingpins to smuggle into Nigeria consignments of heroin through the Port Harcourt International Airport and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).
One of the kingpins who uses two identities to support his cross border movements, has a Nigerian passport with his original name: Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus, 30, and that of Sierra Leone with a different name: Kargbo Mohamed Foday.
Spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja said that the suspect was stopped by the agency’s officers with his Sierra Leonean passport on Sunday 2nd February, 2025, at the Port Harcourt airport, Rivers State, during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight from Doha through Abuja to Port Harcourt.
“He was subsequently taken for body scan which confirmed he ingested illicit drugs and thereafter placed under excretion observation during which he expelled a total of 62 wraps of heroin in five excretions, weighing 1.348kgs.
“Investigation reveals Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus (alias Kargbo Mohamed Foday) alternates his two identities for different drug trafficking missions between Thailand, Pakistan, Iran and West African countries.
“He claimed to have gone full time into the illicit drug trade in 2017 when his clothing and shoe business went down,” Babafemi said.
The second drug lord, James Herbert Chinoso, 48, was arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Saturday, 1st February, upon his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
After a body scan confirmed illicit drug in his system, he was placed under excretion observation during which he egested 63 wraps of heroin with a total weight of 909 grams.
Chinoso had left Lagos to Madagascar on 26th January 2025 and returned via Addis Ababa after spending a week.
He claimed to have gone into the criminal trade after his phone accessories business in Liberia collapsed.
Also, two parcels of 2.82kgs of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis imported from the United States with Lagos as destination were equally intercepted by NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI), at a courier firm in Lagos on 6th February.
While commending the officers and men of MMIA, PHIA, DOGI, Kano and Kogi Commands of the agency for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), said that their operational successes and those of their compatriots across the country are well appreciated.
