Man arrested for swallowing 96 pellets of coc*ine

A 44-year-old father of three, Gabriel Anthony Patrick, has been arrested by operatives of the National Dr*g Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, for ingesting 96 pellets of coc*ine, which he excreted in the custody of the Agency.

He 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.

NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, December 5, said 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 17th November to sell cloths and car spare parts he shipped to Lagos earlier. He however said he couldnt 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 dr*g 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 25th Nov 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 coc*ine to ingest before leaving for Abuja to board his flight to Madrid the following day,” the statement reads.