Ex-Footballer, Businessman, Others Arrested Over Illicit Drugs

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a former international footballer, Segun George Hunkarin, and his associate, Ntoruka Chinedu, for attempting to smuggle ocaine into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

According to NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, Chinedu was apprehended on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, upon arrival from Turkey via an Ethiopian Airlines flight that transited through Addis Ababa. A search of his hand luggage revealed 37 wraps of cocaine weighing 800 grammes, which he allegedly collected in Ethiopia.

Further investigation led to the arrest of Hunkarin, a former professional footballer who spent several years playing in Brazil.

He was reportedly waiting at the airport car park to receive the consignment from Chinedu.

“In his statement, Hunkarin admitted to previously trafficking drugs twice between Brazil and Ethiopia during his football career, but claimed he had never smuggled narcotics into Nigeria,” Babafemi stated.

In a separate incident, Europe-based businessman Amen Okoro Godstime was arrested on Friday, June 27, at Lagos Airport while attempting to smuggle 5,000 tablets of Tramadol (225mg) disguised as malaria drugs such as Lonart, Amatem, and Aluktem.

He was intercepted at Terminal 2 during clearance for a Royal Air Maroc flight to Spain via Casablanca and confessed he planned to move the drugs to Italy through France, where he resided.

At the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, NDLEA operatives also intercepted two suspected drug traffickers on the same day.

The first, 38-year-old Ezenwaka Chibuzor Emmanuel, a bar attendant based in Mozambique, was caught with 17.5kg of methamphetamine and 3.05kg of cocaine concealed in bedsheets. He had arrived from Johannesburg via Addis Ababa.

The second, 54-year-old Azu Follygan Kpodar, flew in from São Paulo, Brazil. A liquid soap container found in his luggage tested positive for cocaine, weighing 1.25kg. Kpodar, a toy merchant, claimed he bought the substance while shopping for his wedding in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, NDLEA officers at the Seme border in Badagry, Lagos, arrested a 26-year-old Beninese national, Vode Jean-Luck, on June 24. He was caught attempting to smuggle 69 wraps of skunk— a strong strain of cannabis— weighing 29.5kg into Nigeria.

In Kwara State, operatives raided the Omu-Aran residence of a notorious drug dealer, Mary Bolanle Oladele, popularly known as “’ya Nafi’, on June 25. Various quantities of skunk, tramadol, and flunitrazepam were recovered.

Also, in Delta State, 72-year-old Christy Ejaro was arrested in the Niger CAT area of Warri, Delta State, on June 24. Several sachets of skunk, packaged for retail, were seized from the grandmother during the operation.