NDLEA arrests South African woman with 5.75kg of heroin at Abuja airport
By Aboki Forex —
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman attempting to smuggle 5.75 kilograms of heroin into Nigeria at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja. The suspect was travelling with her three-year-old son when operatives intercepted her on Monday, July 6, during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways Flight QR1433 arriving from Doha.
How the arrest happened
The NDLEA, in a statement on Sunday signed by Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, revealed that the suspect identified as Will Ann initially denied travelling with any checked-in luggage. Operatives established that two suitcases containing 14 large blocks of heroin bore baggage tags matching the claim tags attached to her passport.
“Though she initially denied travelling with check-in bags, after operatives were able to quickly establish that the two bags containing the drugs had tags which tallied with the claim tags attached to her passport, she recanted and admitted ownership of the bags, adding that she forgot she checked in the two bags,” the statement read.
The agency said the suspect claimed she had travelled from Cambodia through Doha before arriving in Abuja.
Transnational drug network
The NDLEA stated that intelligence leading to her arrest indicates she is a member of a transnational drug trafficking organization along with her husband or partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager, based in Cambodia. “From where they operate their drug network along the Cambodian-South African axis,” the statement added.
Second arrest at Lagos airport
The agency also announced a separate arrest at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. Operatives detained a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle rider, Onyechere Chinadu, after he arrived from Madagascar via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight with 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed in clothing in his backpack.
The suspect confessed that he had worked as an okada rider in Lagos for 15 years before being recruited into drug trafficking by a Uganda-based associate. “He said he ingested the recovered pellets of methamphetamine in Uganda before embarking on his planned journey to Madagascar to deliver the drug consignment,” the statement read.
After being denied entry into Madagascar, his sponsor allegedly rerouted him to Lagos, where NDLEA operatives intercepted him on arrival. The agency placed the suspect under observation because he could not state the exact number of pellets he had swallowed. Between his arrest and July 11, he excreted 13 additional pellets, bringing the total recovery to 100 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 1.715 kilograms.
What this means for Nigeria
The arrests highlight the continued use of Nigeria's major international airports as transit and destination points for drug trafficking networks operating across multiple continents. Operatives are increasingly employing tactics ranging from luggage concealment to internal body packing to evade detection. Earlier this year, the NDLEA secured 974 convictions against drug offenders across Nigeria in the first quarter of 2026, including 11 major drug kingpins who were sentenced to a combined 254 years in prison. Convictions increased steadily during the three-month period, with 265 offenders convicted in January, 316 in February, and 393 in March, reflecting a continued push by the agency to prosecute drug-related offences nationwide.