Suspected drug baron arrested for concealing $34,000 in boxer shorts
Ibrahim Adesina
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a passenger for attempting to smuggle out 23 wraps containing 34,000 dollars to Brazil.
This is contained in a statement issued by Mr Mitchell Ofoyeju, Head, Public Affairs, NDLEA, on Friday in Lagos.
According to the statement, the passenger, Ozoh Ikenna, was arrested at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, during screening of passengers on Etihad Airways flight to Abu Dhabi.
It said the money was packed in wraps and concealed in Ikenna’s boxer shorts.
The statement added that the NDLEA airport commander, Mr Ahmadu Garba, said, the arrest was facilitated with the aid of a scanning machine.
It reads inter alia: “The wraps of dollars found on Ikenna were detected with the aid of scanning machine.
“We also conducted a follow-upoperation where one Ogbo Emmanuel who gave Ozoh the 34,000 dollars was arrested,” the commander is quoted as saying.
The statement further stated that investigation activities conducted by the NDLEA’s Assets and Financial Investigation Directorate revealed that the suspects were involved in the laundering of substantial amount of illicit drug proceeds.
“We were able to trace over N226 million to one bank account belonging to the second suspect, Ogbo Emmanuel.
The head of the directorate, Mrs Victoria Egbase, was quoted in the statement to have said: “The account name is Eternal God International Limited”.
The narcotic agency also discovered that suspected drug proceeds were regularly deposited in the said bank account by members of an international drug cell that smuggles cocaine from South America to West Africa.
Mr Ahmadu Giade was quoted as saying that the Agency is strategically targeting criminal wealth.
“Asset forfeiture is one of the effective ways of responding to organised crime threats; we are working assiduously to trace and confiscate criminal wealth of drug syndicates.
“Strategic efforts are on-going to prevent the entry of drug proceeds into legitimate economy and criminal financing”, Giade said.
He assured members of the public that in view of the overwhelming evidence linking the money to narcotics, the agency would diligently prosecute the suspects.
