Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, have arrested two Brazilian returnees, Ofoma Sunday and Ukachukwu Frank Ikechukwu, who excreted a total of 116 wraps of heroin and cocaine.
One of the suspects, 46-year-old Ofoma, was arrested on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, at Terminal 2 of the airport upon his arrival from Laos, Brazil, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
He was taken for a body scan, which confirmed the ingestion of illicit drugs.
NDLEA’s spokesperson Femi Babafemi said Ofoma had left Nigeria for Brazil on September 3 to courier the consignment to Lagos for a reward of $2,500 upon successful delivery.
A swift follow-up operation was conducted at Eliata Hotel in the Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos, where Ofoma was instructed to meet Nweke Jude Chuckwudi, who was designated to oversee the drugs’ excretion at the hotel and recover them.
The 55-year-old Nweke was arrested in the process.
“A total of 111 wraps of heroin weighing 1.452 kilogrammes were egested in eight excretions by Ofoma,” the NDLEA stated.
Similarly, another Brazilian returnee Ukachukwu Frank Ikechukwu, was arrested at the Lagos airport during the inward clearance of Ethiopian Airlines passengers from Brazil via Addis Ababa on Friday, September 19. He was taken for a body scan, which confirmed illicit drug insertion.
The NDLEA said under excretion observation, Ukachukwu expelled five big wraps of cocaine weighing 145 grams.
The NDLEA said, “In his statement, he confessed to having bought nine wraps of the class A drug in Brazil and inserted all into his anus, a process he claimed took him nearly two hours. During his transit through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he said he began to experience severe anal pain and decided to remove the wraps from his body. He stated that in an attempt to catch his connecting flight to Nigeria, he could only reinsert seven wraps, after which he flushed the remaining two in a toilet.
“The suspect revealed that he felt pressured and uncomfortable while on board his flight to Nigeria, which compelled him to use the lavatory. During the process, he expelled an additional two wraps, leaving him with only five wraps in his anus. He claimed to have been into clothing business before travelling to Brazil in 2017. In 2020, he moved to the United States, where he was arrested for an immigration offence and was detained for over a year before being deported to Nigeria in 2022.
In March 2025, he returned to Brazil, where he currently works, having already obtained a Brazilian residence permit.
Meanwhile, a businesswoman, Okolonkwo Ebere Theresa was on Sunday, September 14, taken into custody after aviation security officers of FAAN, in collaboration with NDLEA operatives attached to the screening point of Terminal 2 of the Lagos Airport, arrested her for concealing illicit drugs in her underwear while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Doha, Qatar.
