Two suspected drug traffickers, Francis Okechukwu Okonkwo, 44, and Lucky Ifedigbo Chinedu, 37, who thought they could escape the eagle eyes of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), by inserting 700 grammes of cocaine in capsules in their anuses, were arrested at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos State.A statement from the NDLEA reports that the two suspects were arrested during the inward screening of passengers on a Royal Air Maroc flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil en route Casablanca, Morocco, and a search on them revealed that they had inserted seven wraps of the drug, each weighing 350 grammes into their alimentary canals to evade arrest.
In confessing to the crime, Okonkwo, an indigene of Enugu State, said frustration and hardship pushed him to drug trafficking for the 'princely' sum of N500,000.
“I was stranded in Brazil where I worked as a waiter in a restaurant for two years. Life was awful as I was struggling daily just to feed myself.
When I was contacted to smuggle cocaine to Nigeria, I was very happy because it was an opportunity to return home. My sponsor also promised to pay me half a million Naira with which I had planned to start a business,” the married father of two said.
On his part, Ifedigbo, who is from Anambra State, said he decided to undertake the illicit trade after spending two years in Brazil where he had gone for greener pastures with nothing to show for his efforts.
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