The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a former international football player, Segun George Hunkarin, alongside four others, over their involvement in drug trafficking operations that led to the seizure of 22.6 kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine at Lagos and Enugu airports.
According to a statement by the NDLEA, Hunkarin and his alleged accomplice, Ntoruka Emmanuel Chinedu, were arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, following the discovery of concealed cocaine in Chinedu’s carry-on luggage.
Chinedu, who was returning from Turkey on an Ethiopian Airlines flight with a stopover in Addis Ababa, had in his possession 37 wraps of cocaine weighing 800 grams, reportedly handed to him in transit.
Hunkarin was apprehended in the airport’s car park while allegedly waiting to collect the consignment.
“Investigation showed that the suspect was coming from Turkey on an Ethiopian Airlines flight but transited through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he collected the luggage from another person before heading to Nigeria. Further checks revealed that an accomplice who turned out to be the former professional footballer, Segun Hunkarin, was waiting for Chinedu at the airport car park to collect the consignment from him. Hunkarin, who had stayed for years in Brazil playing for football clubs, was promptly tracked and arrested at the car park.
In his statement, Hunkarin claimed that while playing professional football in the South American country, he had only trafficked drugs twice from Brazil to Ethiopia, but had never brought any to Nigeria,” they stated.
Trafficking of tramadol disguised as malaria drugs
In a separate incident, another Europe-based businessman, Amen Okoro Godstime, was arrested at the MMIA on June 27.
NDLEA officials intercepted him while attempting to smuggle 5,000 pills of Tramadol 225mg, disguised in malaria drug packs such as Lonart, Amatem, and Aluktem.
“Okoro, who is into the freight and logistics business between Europe and Nigeria, claimed that on his arrival in Spain, he would take a train to France, where he resides, and from there send the tramadol consignment to Italy for retailing,” NDLEA stated
Other arrests
At the Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA) in Enugu, two passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight were arrested in connection with separate drug trafficking attempts.
The first suspect, Ezenwaka Chibuzor Emmanuel, a bar attendant based in Maputo, Mozambique, was found with 17 cardboard-size parcels of methamphetamine weighing 17.5kg and three parcels of cocaine weighing 3.05kg, hidden in bedsheets inside his luggage.
- Another passenger, 54-year-old Azu Follygan Kpodar, was found with liquid cocaine weighing 1.25kg concealed in a liquid soap container marked “YPE.”
- The NDLEA confirmed that the substance was promptly taken for analysis at the NDLEA forensic and chemical laboratory, Enugu, where the substance tested positive for cocaine.
- Kpodar, a toy seller in São Paulo, Brazil, claimed he bought the substance while shopping for his wedding ceremony in Nigeria.
- At the Seme border in Badagry, Lagos, NDLEA operatives arrested a 26-year-old Beninese national, Vode Jean-Luck, attempting to traffic 69 balls of skunk (cannabis) weighing 29.5kg into Nigeria from the Benin Republic.
- The agency also arrested a known drug dealer, Mary Bolanle Oladele, popularly called Iya Nafi, during a raid in Omu-Aran, Kwara State. Quantities of skunk, tramadol, and flunitrazepam were found at her base in Irepodun Local Government Area.
In Delta State, a 72-year-old grandmother, Mrs. Christy Ejaro, was arrested on June 24 in the Niger CAT area of Warri. She was found with several sachets of skunk packaged in retail sizes.
