A major drug bust has rocked Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos, where operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) stormed Eliata Hotel and arrested a key suspect overseeing the recovery of heroin from a courier.
According to NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, the Amuwo raid was part of a larger operation that began at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, where two Brazil returnees were intercepted after ingesting a combined 116 wraps of heroin and cocaine.
The operation unfolded after one of the returnees, arrested on September 16 at Lagos airport, admitted he was instructed to proceed to Eliata Hotel in Amuwo Odofin. There, he was to meet 55-year-old Nweke Chuckwudi, tasked with supervising the excretion of the ingested drugs.
Babafemi said:
“A swift follow-up operation was conducted at Eliata Hotel in Amuwo Odofin where Nweke was arrested in the process. A total of 111 wraps of heroin weighing 1.452 kilograms were recovered in eight excretions.”
This revelation places Amuwo Odofin in focus as a strategic hub in the drug syndicate’s operations, raising concerns about hotels in the area being used as safe houses for illicit activities.
The chain of arrests started at the Lagos airport when operatives stopped a suspect arriving from Brazil on Ethiopian Airlines. A body scan revealed he had ingested illicit substances, which were later excreted under medical observation.
Investigations revealed that the traffickers left Nigeria on September 3 to courier the drugs from Brazil for a promised reward of $2,500 upon successful delivery.
The second suspect, who confessed to previously living in the U.S. before being deported in 2022, explained how he endured severe anal pain during his flight, forcing him to expel some of the cocaine mid-transit.
Babafemi stressed that the agency is determined to break drug trafficking networks by targeting both couriers and their local contacts. The Amuwo Odofin raid, he noted, demonstrates how swiftly NDLEA can trace and dismantle support structures beyond airport arrests.