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By Lizzy Chirkpi
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a China-based Nigerian businessman and two Angolan nationals after they excreted a total of 236 cocaine wraps between them following interceptions at major Nigerian airports, the agency said.
The arrests occurred on February 4, 2026 at two key international airports Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in the Federal Capital Territory and Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano State.
According to NDLEA’s statement on Sunday, the 34-year-old Nigerian, Ibeanu Vincent Chukwudulue, was detained on board a Qatar Airways flight (QR1432) departing from Kano and bound for Guangzhou, China, via Abuja and Doha. After acting on credible intelligence, NDLEA officers at Abuja ordered him off the aircraft and subjected him to a body scan, which revealed he had ingested illicit substances.
He was placed under medical observation, during which he excreted 52 cocaine pellets weighing 735.95 grams. In a statement to investigators, Chukwudulue said he previously ran a business on Lagos Island before relocating to Guangzhou, China, in 2024.
At the Kano airport, two Angolan nationals: Mbandu Martins Makiadi (50) and Ngoma Wilson Fernando (52) were intercepted while clearing security ahead of a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, via Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET940.
Both men were taken for a body scan after testing positive for drug ingestion and kept under observation. Officials said Makiadi excreted 76 wraps weighing 920 grams in seven rounds, and Fernando expelled 108 pellets weighing 1.33 kilograms in five excretions. The two Angolans told investigators they were recruited by a Luanda-based automobile spare parts dealer, who allegedly promised each of them $3,000 for delivering the drug consignment in Turkey.
NDLEA has repeatedly stressed the importance of robust surveillance and screening at international airports to prevent global drug trafficking through Nigerian transit points. The agency says investigations into the case are ongoing, and those involved will face prosecution under Nigeria’s drug laws.
The arrests is one of the ongoing challenges in combating transnational drug trafficking networks and the use of “body packing” where traffickers swallow pellets of drugs to transport them across borders a method regularly detected by NDLEA through advanced body scanning technologies.