Chukwuemeka Clement Arrested After Ingesting 100 Wraps of Cocaine, Confesses to Drug Trafficking to Start a New Life
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) made a significant arrest at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja when they apprehended a 67-year-old drug trafficker, Chukwuemeka Clement, who had ingested 100 wraps of cocaine. Chukwuemeka claimed that he resorted to drug trafficking in a desperate bid to raise funds for a fresh start in life after spending three decades abroad, particularly in Brazil, Ethiopia, and Thailand.
According to NDLEA reports, Chukwuemeka was detained on Tuesday, October 3, during the inward clearance of passengers arriving on Ethiopian Airlines flight 951 from Addis Ababa. Authorities became suspicious and subjected him to a body scan, which revealed multiple drug pellets concealed in his stomach. Subsequently, he excreted a total of 100 wraps of cocaine, weighing 2.195 kilograms, in four separate instances.
In his statement to authorities, Chukwuemeka disclosed that he had spent the last 30 years living abroad. Despite having been previously married, he lost his wife and remained childless. This personal tragedy drove him to turn to drug trafficking as a means to accumulate the necessary funds to marry a new wife and start afresh.
On the same day, NDLEA operatives at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) in Kano intercepted a 45-year-old woman named Bilkisu Mohammed Bello as she was preparing to board a Saudia Airlines flight to Saudi Arabia. During questioning, she admitted to having swallowed pellets of cocaine before her flight, which were stored in a house in the Farawa area of Kano. NDLEA officers subsequently accompanied her to the location, where they discovered 52 wraps of the illicit substance weighing a total of 767 grams.
Meanwhile, on the same day as the two arrests at the airports, NDLEA operatives, supported by personnel from the Nigerian Army, Civil Defence Corps, and Amotekun, conducted a successful operation in James Town, Ogunmakin, in the Obafemi Owode local government area of Ogun State. During the operation, they located and destroyed 10.38 tonnes of cannabis sativa plants spread across more than 4.152 hectares.
On their way back from the operation, the team intercepted a truck with the registration FS548XN, which was carrying a 40-foot container loaded with logs of wood. A search of the container led to the discovery of two bags containing 20 kilograms of cannabis sativa. Authorities arrested six individuals in the truck, identified as Ahmed Yusuf, Olaniyi Babatunde, Adedeji Babatunde, Richard John, Osolale Olamilekan, and Abdulazeez Saied, on drug-related charges
