A suspected drug trafficker, Roland Chukwudi Tochukwu, 37, who was apprehended for importing 2.045kg of heroin from Nairobi, Kenya, was found in possession of a fake travel ticket indicating that he was coming from China.
Another suspect, Maduka Nnemeka Peter, 39, was also caught attempting to export 1.555kg of cocaine to Dubai. Preliminary investigation revealed that Tochukwu deliberately replaced his ticket with a fake one showing that he was coming from China instead of Nairobi.
This was intended to place him on a low risk profile but his expectations were dashed as the heroin concealed inside his luggage was detected during screening of passengers on an Ethiopian Airline flight.
NDLEA commander at the Lagos airport, Ahmadu Garba, while explaining reasons for the falsification of the ticket, said drugs are more expensive in Asia. “The suspect wanted to distract the officers by presenting himself as coming from China while he actually took off from Nairobi. .
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This is because, it is economically unwise to bring narcotics from China where the price is far higher than here in Nigeria." Tochukwu, a trader in Onitsha and married with three children, said his friend introduced him into drug trafficking.
Peter, an automobile parts dealer based in Aba with his wife and two children, said family problem pushed him into drug trafficking. “I smuggled the drug for the sum of N200, 000 to solve family problem,” he stated.
