Gabriel Anthony Patrick, a 44-year-old father of three, was detained by agents of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja, for eating 96 cocaine pellets, which he excreted while in the Agency’s custody.
Gabriel, a native of Nike in Enugu State’s Enugu North Local Government Area, was apprehended on Friday, November 26th, during an outward clearing of Turkish Airlines at the airport’s boarding screening area en route Abuja-Istanbul-Madrid.
Gabriel, according to NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi, sought refuge in Germany in 1996 for two years before relocating to Spain in 1999, where he currently holds a residence visa and works as a driver for a food production company.
The alleged trafficker stated he entered Nigeria on November 17th to sell clothing and car parts that he had already transported to Lagos.
He said, however, that he couldn’t sell his consignments, which cost him 4,000 Euros excluding shipping costs, since they were offered below cost at Lagos’ Ladipo market, and he wanted to return to Spain to start work when his yearly vacation expired.
As a result, he said, he accepted an offer to traffic the substance in exchange for 1,500 Euros if he successfully delivered the shipment to someone in Spain.
He claimed he flew from Lagos to Enugu to see his family, and then to Onitsha, Anambra State, on November 25th, where he was picked up from Upper Iweka Park late at night and transported to a residence where he was given the 96 cocaine pellets to eat before flying to Madrid the next day.
The Chairman/CEO of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), has praised the officers and men of the Agency’s NAIA and MMIA commands for their recent efforts in combating drug trafficking.
He challenged them, as well as their colleagues in other commands, to keep increasing the bar on their achievements until every gram of illicit narcotics has been removed from every Nigerian town.
