Agents from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos, have apprehended two individuals returning from Brazil, Ofoma Sunday and Ukachukwu Frank Ikechukwu, who were found to have ingested a combined total of 116 wraps of heroin and cocaine.
Ofoma Sunday, aged 46, was detained on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, at Terminal 2 of Lagos Airport after arriving from Laos via Brazil on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
Following his arrival, Ofoma underwent a body scan that confirmed the presence of concealed narcotics within his system.
According to NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, Ofoma had traveled to Brazil on September 3rd with the mission to smuggle the drugs back to Lagos, expecting a payment of $2,500 upon successful delivery.
Subsequent investigations led officers to Eliata Hotel in the Amuwo Odofin district of Lagos, where Ofoma was directed to meet Nweke Jude Chuckwudi, who was responsible for managing the retrieval of the drugs after excretion.
During the operation, 55-year-old Nweke was also arrested.
The NDLEA reported that Ofoma expelled 111 wraps of heroin, weighing a total of 1.452 kilograms, over eight separate excretions.
In a related incident, Ukachukwu Frank Ikechukwu, another returnee from Brazil, was detained at Lagos Airport on Friday, September 19th, during passenger clearance from an Ethiopian Airlines flight arriving via Addis Ababa.
A body scan revealed that Ikechukwu had concealed illegal substances internally.
Under close observation, Ikechukwu expelled five large wraps of cocaine, totaling 145 grams.
He admitted in his statement to purchasing nine wraps of this Class A drug in Brazil, which he inserted anally-a process he said took nearly two hours.
During his layover in Addis Ababa, Ikechukwu experienced intense anal discomfort and attempted to remove the wraps. To catch his connecting flight to Nigeria, he managed to reinsert seven wraps but discarded two by flushing them down a toilet.
While on the flight to Nigeria, he felt urgent discomfort and used the lavatory, where he expelled two more wraps, leaving five still concealed.
Ikechukwu disclosed that before traveling to Brazil in 2017, he was involved in the clothing industry. In 2020, he relocated to the United States but was detained for over a year due to immigration violations and deported back to Nigeria in 2022.
He returned to Brazil in March 2025, where he currently resides and works, having secured a Brazilian residence permit.
Separately, on Sunday, September 14, a businesswoman named Okolonkwo Ebere Theresa was arrested by Aviation Security Officers of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in collaboration with NDLEA agents at the Terminal 2 screening point of Lagos Airport. She was caught attempting to smuggle illegal drugs concealed in her underwear while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight bound for Doha, Qatar.
