NDLEA nabs India-bound nursing student with 76 wraps of cocaine

The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have foiled an attempt by 26-year-old Esther Onyinyechi Uzodinma, a 200-level student of nursing at the Noida International University, Uttar Pradesh in India, to swallow 76 wraps of cocaine hours before her return flight to the South Asian country through the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano.

Esther was scheduled to return to Delhi, India from from Kano airport on Qatar Airways flight 1432 on Friday, January 17, 2025, but was arrested in her room at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 16, at Royal Park Hotel, Sabon Garin in Kano, while awaiting the cocaine consignment she was to ingest before her flight the following morning.

Her lid was blown open when NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi State on Thursday intercepted 31-year-old Cosmas Okorie in a commuter bus coming from Lagos enroute Kano.

Inside his black polythene bag was an audio speaker, which was used to conceal 76 pellets of cocaine weighing 1.340 kilograms, which he was going to deliver to Esther in Kano.

The NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, January 19, said follow-up operation in Kano led to the arrest of the female nursing student on Thursday.

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Babafemi stated: “In her statement, Esther claimed the drug cartel she was working for recruited her in India and paid for her trip to Nigeria to enjoy her Christmas and New Year holidays.

“To avoid her parents knowing she was in Nigeria, Esther did not travel to her home state, Imo, but was lodged for two weeks in a hotel in Enugu, from where she was flown to Abuja and then Kano where she was lodged at Royal Park Hotel to swallow the 76 pellets of cocaine sent to her from Lagos before taking her Qatar Airways flight to India on Friday morning.

“She said she was promised over $5,000 upon successful delivery of the illicit consignment in India.”

He added that the NDLEA operatives, in other operations along the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja Expressway, arrested four suspects – Abdullahi Umar, Tijjani Samaila, Lucky Obotte, and Abubakar Haruna – who were heading to Maiduguri in Borno State, Kano, and Abuja in commuter vehicles with over 38,000 pills of tramadol 225mg, 250mg and 100mg concealed in audio speakers and cloths.

The Star