Two Qatar-based drug barons, Eyah Nnamdi and Ugwuoke Oluchukwu, have been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency following the interception of their methamphetamine consignment at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
Ugwuoke was the first to be arrested on June 8, during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways passengers at the departure point, Terminal 2 of the Lagos airport.
The spokesperson for the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday noted that officers discovered that the suspect was travelling to Doha with an Ivorian international passport with the name Hien Narcisse.
Babafemi said, “A further scrutiny of his black carry-on luggage led to the discovery of a false bottom concealment of two parcels of crystalline substance that tested positive to methamphetamine weighing 1.00kg. Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect is a Nigerian who had gone to obtain an Ivorian passport for his travels.
“He confessed that he travelled to Qatar in August 2022 and returned from the Arab nation about two months ago to perfect arrangement for the movement of the drug consignment.
“A further probe led operatives to discover that his Qatar-based senior partner in the trade simply identified as Murphy was lurking around in Eziani, his home town in Nsukka LGA, Enugu State. Ugwuoke who hails from Igboeze North Local Government Area of the State claims he holds a National Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Federal Polytechnic Oko.
“A prompt deployment of NDLEA operatives to Eziani community of Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, on June 10 led to the arrest of ‘Murphy’ whose true identity was later discovered to be Eyah Celestine Nnamdi, who had lived in Indonesia for some years before relocating to Doha, Qatar.”
