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Five arrested with 3.47 kg cocaine in Nigeria
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-05 14:52
LAGOS -- Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has foiled attempts by five suspected trans-border drug traffickers to smuggle 3.471 kg of cocaine into Nigeria, local media reported Sunday.

A statement from the NDLEA said on Saturday that some of the suspected drugs were concealed in shoe soles and others were ingested by the drug dealers, according to This Day newspaper.

Three of the suspects were arrested at Seme town and the other two at Gbaji check point along Lagos Badagry expressway.  

The statement signed by the NDLEA's spokesman Mitchell Ofoyeju noted that Collins Okafor who claimed to be a supplier of telephone accessories was found to be neck deep in the illicit act.

In a confessional statement, the suspect accepted ownership of 57 wraps of substance he ingested which tested positive for cocaine weighing 1.179 kg. Collins ingested the drug in Guinea and travelled from Conakry to Nigeria by road.

He said he deposited 1,300 Euros for the drug because he works for a drug syndicate in Guinea.

The statement disclosed that preliminary investigation conducted by the command revealed that one of the drug traffickers, Collins, a Senior Secondary School Certificate holder of 1999, was the person that introduced Uche Okafor into the illicit business.

Uche was found to have ingested 33 wraps of cocaine weighing 692 grams in Conakry and travelled by road with Collins.  Uche said indebtedness made him to traffic in drugs.

The statement said that Sokey Oluaoha also claimed to be dealing in illicit drugs because of poverty.

Oluaoha took off from Cotonuo in Benin Republic with 35 wraps of cocaine in his stomach weighing 600 grammes.

The other two culprits, Ani Joseph Sunday and his Guinean accomplice Bah Mamadou Lamarana were found drugs in shoes and bags.