Father of three nabbed at Abuja Airport for ingesting 96 pellets of cocaine
For ingesting 96 pellets of cocaine, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 44-year-old father of three, Gabriel Anthony Patrick at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), adding that he excreted the drugs in the custody of the agency.
Patrick, a native of Nike in Enugu North Local Council of Enugu State, was arrested on Friday, November 26, during an outward clearance of Turkish Airline at the boarding screening area of the airport enroute Abuja-Istanbul-Madrid.
According to a statement by NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, yesterday, the suspect had travelled to Germany in 1996 for two years on asylum, after which he relocated to Spain in 1999 where he currently holds a residence permit and works as a driver in a food manufacturing company.
He claimed he came into Nigeria on November 17 to sell clothes and car spare parts he shipped to Lagos earlier. Patrick however said he couldn’t sell his consignments, which cost him 4,000 Euros excluding the cost of shipment because they were priced below the cost price at Ladipo market in Lagos and he needed to travel back to Spain to resume work after the expiration of his annual leave.
This, he said, led him to accept an offer to traffic the drug for which he would be paid 1,500 Euros when he successfully delivers the consignment to someone in Spain.
He claimed he left Lagos for Enugu to see his family members, and then travelled on November 25 to Onitsha, Anambra State where he was picked from Upper Iweka park at night and taken to a house where he was given the 96 pellets of cocaine to ingest before leaving for Abuja to board his flight to Madrid the following day.
