The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested an ex-international football player, Segun George Hunkarin, along with his businessman partner, Ntoruka Emmanuel Chinedu, over an attempt to smuggle a consignment of cocaine into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.
Chinedu, who is a frequent flyer known for conveying clothes from Turkey to Nigeria and foodstuffs from Nigeria to Turkey, was the first to be arrested upon his arrival at the Lagos airport on 24th June 2025.
A statement by the spokesman of the NDLEA, Mr. Femi Babafemi, on Sunday said a search of Chinedu’s carry-on bag revealed 37 wraps of cocaine weighing 800 grams concealed therein.
Investigation showed that the suspect was coming from Turkey on an Ethiopian Airlines flight but transited through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he collected the luggage from another person before heading to Nigeria.
Further checks revealed that an accomplice, who turned out to be the former professional footballer Segun Hunkarin, was waiting for Chinedu at the airport car park to collect the consignment from him. Hunkarin, who had spent years in Brazil playing for football clubs, was promptly tracked and arrested at the car park.
In his statement, Hunkarin claimed that while playing professional football in the South American country, he had only trafficked drugs twice from Brazil to Ethiopia but had never brought any to Nigeria.
Another Europe-based businessman, Amen Okoro Godstime, was on Friday arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport while attempting to traffic 5,000 pills of Tramadol 225mg packaged as known malaria drugs such as Lonart, Amatem, and Aluktem to Spain. He was intercepted at the departure hall of Terminal 2 of the airport during the outward clearance of passengers on a Royal Air Maroc flight to Spain via Casablanca.
Okoro, who is into the freight and logistics business between Europe and Nigeria, claimed that on his arrival in Spain, he would take a train to France where he resides and from there send the Tramadol consignment to Italy for retailing.
At the Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA), Enugu, NDLEA operatives on Friday intercepted a Maputo, Mozambique-based bar attendant, Ezenwaka Chibuzor Emmanuel. A search of his luggage led to the discovery of 17 cardboard-sized parcels of methamphetamine weighing 17.500 kilograms and three parcels of cocaine weighing 3.050 kilograms.
The 38-year-old suspect was coming from Johannesburg, South Africa, via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight when he was interdicted and subjected to a search, during which the illicit drugs concealed in bedsheets packed in his bags were discovered.
Another passenger on board the same Ethiopian Airlines flight, 54-year-old Azu Follygan Kpodar, was also intercepted at the Enugu airport by NDLEA operatives. When Azu, who arrived from São Paulo, Brazil, was searched, a liquid soap plastic container marked “YPE” was discovered in his luggage. The substance was promptly taken for analysis at the NDLEA forensic and chemical laboratory in Enugu, where it tested positive for cocaine.
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The substance, which turned out to be liquid cocaine, weighed 1.250kg. The suspect, who is a toy seller in Brinquedo, São Paulo, Brazil, claimed he purchased the substance while shopping for his wedding ceremony in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives at the Seme border area of Badagry in Lagos on 24th June intercepted a 26-year-old Beninese, Vode Jean-Luck, while trying to smuggle 69 balls of skunk, a strain of cannabis, with a gross weight of 29.5kg, from Benin Republic into Nigeria.
In Kwara State, a notorious drug dealer, Mary Bolanle Oladele (a.k.a. Iya Nafi), was arrested on 25th June when NDLEA operatives raided her base in Omu-Aran in Irepodun Local Government Area, where various quantities of skunk, Tramadol, and Flunitrazepam were recovered from her.
The NDLEA statement also said that a 72-year-old grandma, Mrs. Christy Ejaro, was on 24th June arrested by operatives of the Agency at Niger CAT area of Warri, Delta State, and several sachets of skunk packaged in retail sizes were recovered from her.
While commending the officers and men of MMIA, AIIA, Delta, Kwara, and Seme Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig-Gen. Mohamed Marwa (Rtd), equally praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for ensuring a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
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