Drug traffickers conceal hard drug in male condoms

Condom has found a new use

Drug traffickers who smuggle heroin into the country now ingest liquid cocaine poured into male condoms

Male condom does more than prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

This was disclosed by officers of the National drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) who said male condoms have become objects used by desperate drug traffickers to conceal liquid cocaine.

This revelation was made following the arrest of four suspects recently at the Murtala Mohammed Interenational Airport in Lagos.

According to the NDLEA spokesperson, Mitchel Ofoyeju, this new method by traffickers is the first in the history of the country as the anti-narcotic agency spread its dragnet on drug barons and traffickers in and around the country.

“Some of the late tricks uncovered by Nigerian anti-narcotic agents include the arrest of drug traffickers who smuggle heroin into the country from Tanzania.

In addition,drug couriers now ingest liquid cocaine poured into male condoms for the first time. These tricks were uncovered at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport(MMIA) Lagos,” Mr. Ofoyeju said.

NDLEA Commander at the airport, Hamza Umar, gave the names of the four suspected drug traffickers.

Two suspects, Ezeani Obinna, a 28 year old auto dealer at Ladipo market and Ozoemena Okoye Samuel, 27 year old dealer in electrical parts, both in Lagos, were arrested with heroin from Tanzania while two others, Egbo Innocent Oluchukwu and Ejimbe Christian Chidi allegedly ingested liquid cocaine concealed in male condoms to avoid detection.

Mr. Hamza said, “The suspects thought that scanning machine will not detect liquid cocaine but they were wrong. Even those coming from Tanzania felt that there would be no attention on them. We shall continue to do our best to prevent traffickers from using this airport."

According to Mr. Hamza, the suspects from Tanzania were detected during screening of passengers on Kenyan Airways while the others arrived from Venezuela with emergency travel certificate aboard South Africa Airline.

“This is the first case of liquid cocaine ingestion in the country. The liquid cocaine which is oily was packed inside condoms. Egbo Innocent Oluchukwu a 43-year-old trader excreted 70 wraps of the oily cocaine weighing 2kg. Ejimbe Christian Chidi, a 32-year-old teacher swallowed 54 wraps of same oily cocaine weighing 1.350kg.”

Egbo lived in Venezuela for ten years . He arrived the country with an emergency travel certificate number 00000600 as he said he was lured to traffick liquid cocaine by a Venezulan drug cartel . “The Venezuelan who gave me the drug told me that it will be difficult for machine to detect liquid cocaine that is ingested. I ingested 70 wraps of the drug using water because I was desperate. It is not that drug trafficking is a good thing but I wanted to solve my personal problem. They promised to pay me the sum of 6,000 dollars. I am married with 2 children and I need the money to cater for my family,” Egbo said.

The other suspect, Ejimbe, is from Anambra State. He teaches English at a Language School in Venezuela. He is single and claimed to have lived in Caracas, Venezuela, for eight years. “I am a 2002 graduate of the University of Maiduguri. I excreted 54 wraps and they promised to pay men N4 million. My intention was to get married and settle down."

Reacting to the arrest, the Chairman/ChiefExecutive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ahmadu Giade urged regional anti- narcotic agencies to be deeply involved in counter narcotic operations in African.

“Heroin is usually smuggled from Pakistan, Iran and India but things are changing with the seizure of heroin coming from Tanzania. This is strange because they have turned drug trafficking into a relay race. The first set of traffickers will smuggle heroin from Pakistan to Tanzania while another set will take it from Tanzania to Nigeria. This is a new plan to evade arrest but we shall now beam our searchlight on African flights,” Mr. Giade stated.

Mr. Ofoyeju said the suspects would be charged to court after thorough investigation.