In the first such case of its kind, Ozoh Ikenna, was arrested at the airport during the screening of passengers about to board an Etihad Airways flight to Abu Dhabi. He had the money hidden in 23 wraps, which he then stuffed into his underwear but was detected thanks to the use of a scanning machine by officials.
NDLEA airport commander Ahmadu Garba, said: “The wraps of dollars found on Ikenna were detected with the aid of scanning machine. We also conducted a follow-up operation where one Ogbo Emmanuel who gave Ozoh the $34,000 dollars was arrested.
“We were able to trace over N226m to one bank account belonging to the second suspect, Ogbo Emmanuel. The account name is Eternal God International Limited."
Investigations conducted by the NDLEA’s Assets and Financial Investigation Directorate revealed that the suspects were involved in the laundering of substantial amount of illicit drug proceeds. According to the NDLEA, it was also discovered that suspected drug proceeds were regularly deposited in the said bank account by members of an international drug cell that smuggles cocaine from South America to West Africa.
NDLEA boss Ahmed Giade, added: "Asset forfeiture is one of the effective ways of responding to organised crime threats and we are working assiduously to trace and confiscate criminal wealth of drug syndicates. Strategic efforts are on-going to prevent the entry of drug proceeds into legitimate economy and criminal financing.”
He assured members of the public that in view of the overwhelming evidence linking the money to narcotics, the agency would diligently prosecute the suspects. In the past, the NDLEA has nabbed people trying to smuggle drugs out of Nigeria this way but this is the first time it is recovering cash in this manner.
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