NDLEA busts South African woman using 3-year-old son as cover to smuggle heroin into Nigeria

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, Ms. Will Jessica Ann, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 5.75 kilogrammes of heroin into Nigeria while using her three-year-old son as a cover to avoid security scrutiny.

The agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, saying the suspect was arrested on Monday, July 6, during the inward clearance of passengers aboard Qatar Airways flight QR1433 from Doha.

Babafemi said the suspect initially denied travelling with any checked luggage, but NDLEA operatives established that two suitcases containing 14 large blocks of heroin bore baggage tags corresponding with the claim tags attached to her passport.

“After the discrepancy was pointed out, she admitted ownership of the bags, claiming she had forgotten she checked them in,” Babafemi said.

According to the agency, the suspect told investigators she travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja. Preliminary intelligence, however, indicates that she is part of a transnational drug trafficking syndicate allegedly operated alongside her husband or partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager, who is based in Cambodia. The network is believed to coordinate illicit drug trafficking along the Cambodia-South Africa route.

In a separate operation, NDLEA officers, working with personnel of the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies, intercepted 8,287 nylon bags of the psychoactive cannabis strain known as Canadian Loud at the Apapa Seaport in Lagos.

Babafemi said the illicit consignment, weighing 4,143.5 kilograms with an estimated street value of over N10.3 billion, was concealed in a container imported from Canada.

He explained that the seizure followed weeks of intelligence gathering, surveillance and monitoring by the Maritime Intelligence Unit of the NDLEA in collaboration with the agency’s Apapa Strategic Command, from the shipment’s point of departure in Montreal, Canada, until its arrival in Nigeria.

The anti-narcotics agency also foiled an attempt to export 2.5 kilograms of skunk, a potent strain of cannabis, hidden inside a gas compressor destined for Cyprus through a Lagos-based courier company.

The operation was carried out by operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI).

Beyond enforcement activities, the NDLEA said it sustained its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign across the country through sensitisation programmes in schools, communities and public institutions.

The awareness activities covered Nnodo Secondary School in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State; Government Girls Secondary School, Sabon Gida, Sharada in Kano State; Royal Jesuit College, Agbado Ekiti; and Community Secondary School, Idofa in Ogun State.

Babafemi added that the leadership of the agency’s Zone 14 Command also paid a WADA advocacy visit to Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, at the Government House in Port Harcourt.

Commending officers involved in the various operations, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), praised personnel of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Command, Maritime Intelligence Unit and Apapa Command for their successes.

Marwa urged the officers to sustain the momentum in disrupting drug trafficking networks while intensifying public enlightenment efforts aimed at reducing drug abuse across the country, Babafemi said.