Ex-footballer, 4 others nabbed with cocaine at Lagos, Enugu airports

The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a former international footballer, Segun George Hunkarin, along with his businessman partner, Ntoruka Emmanuel Chinedu, over an attempt to smuggle cocaine into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos State.

Chinedu, who is a frequent flyer known for conveying clothes from Turkey to Nigeria and foodstuffs from Nigeria to Turkey, was the first to be arrested upon his arrival at the Lagos airport on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.

The NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this via a statement on Sunday, June 29, said a search of Chinedu’s carry-on bag revealed 37 wraps of cocaine weighing 800grams were concealed therein.

Babafemi stated that an investigation showed that the suspect was coming from Turkey on Ethiopian Airlines flight but transited through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he collected the luggage from another person before heading to Nigeria.

According to Babafemi, further checks revealed that an accomplice who turned out to be the former professional footballer was waiting for Chinedu at the airport carpark to collect the consignment from him.

The NDLEA spokesman said Hunkarin who had stayed years in Brazil playing for football clubs was promptly tracked and arrested.

In his statement, the former footballer claimed that while playing professional football in the South American country, he had only trafficked drugs twice from Brazil to Ethiopia but has never brought any to Nigeria.

Another Europe-based businessman, Amen Okoro Godstime, was on Friday, June 27, arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport while attempting to traffic 5,000 pills of tramadol 225mg packaged as known malaria drugs such as Lonart, Amatem, and Aluktem to Spain.

He was intercepted at the departure hall of terminal 2 of the airport during the outward clearance of passengers on Royal Air Maroc flight to Spain through Casablanca.

Okoro who is into freight and logistics business between Europe and Nigeria claimed that on his arrival in Spain, he would to a train to France where he resides and from there send the tramadol consignment to Italy for retailing.

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At the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, NDLEA operatives on Friday, June 27, intercepted a Maputo, Mozambique-based bar attendant Ezenwaka Chibuzor Emmanuel.

Babafemi disclosed that a search of the suspect’s luggage led to the discovery of 17 cardboard size parcels of methamphetamine weighing 17.500 kilograms and three parcels of cocaine weighing 3.050 kilograms.

The 38-year-old suspect was coming from Johannesburg, South Africa, via Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on Ethiopian Airlines flight when he was interdicted and subjected to a search during which the illicit drugs concealed in bedsheets packed in his bags were discovered.

Another passenger on board the same Ethiopian Airlines flight, 54-year-old Azu Follygan Kpodar, was also intercepted at the Enugu airport by NDLEA operatives.

The NDLEA spokesman stated that when Azu, who arrived from Sao Paulo, Brazil, was searched, a liquid soap plastic container marked YPE, was discovered in his luggage.

Babafemi said: “The substance was promptly taken for analysis at the NDLEA forensic and chemical laboratory, Enugu where the substance tested positive to cocaine.

“The substance which turned out to be liquid cocaine weighed 1.250kg. The suspect who is a toy seller in Brinquedo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, claimed he purchased the substance while shopping for his wedding ceremony in Nigeria.”

The Star