Operatives of a Special Operations Unit of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have arrested two brothers who are sponsors of drug traffickers who specialise in exporting drugs by ingestion to Vietnam.
The two brothers arrested on Tuesday 10th September were identified as Ikechukwu Ikeabba and Ugochukwu Ikeabba according to a statement by NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi on Sunday.
Babafemi said their arrest followed diligent investigation of an earlier arrest of an Onitsha, Anambra state based-businessman, Ibeanusi Solomon Nosike, who excreted 68 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.282 kilograms after 12 days of excretion observation after he was arrested at the local wing of the Lagos airport by NDLEA operatives.
The 36-year-old Ibeanusi was arrested in the early hours of Thursday 8th August 2024 at the old domestic terminal of the Lagos airport while attempting to board the first flight out of Lagos to Abuja where he was scheduled to join a Qatar Airways flight to Vietnam at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja at about 10am same day.
Another Vietnam-bound businessman, 54-year-old Paul Okwuy Mbadugha had been arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Abuja airport on Monday 12th August 2024 during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam via Doha after he tested positive to ingestion of cocaine.
After four days under observation, Mbadugha egested a total of 88 wraps of the illicit drug with a gross weight of 1.710 kilograms.
At the time of the arrest of the two kingpins, the Ikeabba brothers, they were caught with 87 wraps of cocaine dummies used in training intending swallowers.
