2 drug lords excrete 125 heroin wraps at Lagos, Port Harcourt airports

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have foiled attempts by two drug kingpins to smuggle into Nigeria consignments of heroin through the Port Harcourt International Airport and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).

One of the kingpins, who uses dual identities to aid his cross-border movements, has a Nigerian passport with his original name: Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus, 30, and that of Sierra Leone with a different name: Kargbo Mohamed Foday.

Spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday in Abuja in a statement, said the suspect was intercepted by the agency’s officers with his Sierra Leonean passport on Sunday, February 2, 2025 at the Port Harcourt airport, Rivers State, during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight from Doha through Abuja to Port Harcourt.

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“He was subsequently taken for body scan which confirmed he ingested illicit drugs and thereafter placed under excretion observation during which he expelled a total of 62 wraps of heroin in five excretions, weighing 1.348kgs.

“Investigation reveals Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus (alias Kargbo Mohamed Foday) alternates his two identities for different drug trafficking missions between Thailand, Pakistan, Iran and West African countries.

“He claimed to have gone full time into the illicit drug trade in 2017 when his clothing and shoe business went down,” Babafemi said.

The second kingpin, James Herbert Chinoso, 48, was arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Saturday, February 1, upon his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on an Ethiopian Airlines flight. After a body scan confirmed illicit drug in his system, he was placed under excretion observation during which he egested 63 wraps of heroin with a total weight of 909 grams.

Chinoso had left Lagos for Madagascar on 26th January 2025 and returned via Addis Ababa after spending a week.

He claimed to have gone into the criminal trade after his phone accessories business in Liberia collapsed.