Photo: Two male drug traffickers arrested at Lagos airport

Photo: Two male drug traffickers arrested at Lagos airport

Two male drug traffickers, Okonkwo Francis Okechukwu, 44, and Ifedigbo Chinedu Lucky, 37 have been arrested by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for trafficking 700 grammes of powdery substance that tested positive for cocaine  at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos.

The Nation reports that the men were arrested during the inward screening of passengers on a Royal Air Maroc flight  from Sao Paulo, Brazil through Casablanca, Morocco. The suspects inserted seven wraps of cocaine each weighing 350 grammes into their alimentary canals to evade arrest.

One of the suspects, Okonkwo Francis Okechukwu who is married with two children and an indigine of Enugu state, said frustration pushed him to drug trafficking. He said he was promised N500 thousand.

“I was stranded in Brazil, where I worked as a waiter in a restaurant for two years. Life was awful as I was struggling daily just to feed myself. When I was contacted to smuggle cocaine to Nigeria, I was very happy because it was an opportunity to return home. My sponsor also promised to pay me half a million Naira with which I had planned to start a business”he said

The second suspect, Ifedigbo Chinedu Lucky who is single and hails from Anambra state, said he had also spent two years in Brazil. He described his arrest as ill-luck. 

“I am a business man. I import female shoes from Brazil since 2014. This arrest is just bad luck for me because I was already calculating my profit from the deal”he said