Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have disrupted an international drug trafficking operation involving a 26-year-old nursing student, Esther Onyinyechi Uzodinma.
The 200-level student at Noida International University, Uttar Pradesh, India, was apprehended in Kano while allegedly preparing to smuggle 76 wraps of cocaine on a return flight to India.
Esther was scheduled to depart from the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) on a Qatar Airways flight to Delhi on Friday, January 17, 2025. However, her plans were thwarted when NDLEA operatives arrested her at the Royal Park Hotel in Sabon Gari, Kano, at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 16.
She was reportedly waiting to receive the cocaine consignment, which she was to ingest before her flight the following morning.
The operation that led to her arrest began earlier that day along the Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi State. NDLEA operatives intercepted 31-year-old Cosmas Okorie in a commuter bus traveling from Lagos to Kano.
A search of his belongings revealed an audio speaker containing 76 pellets of cocaine, weighing 1.34 kilograms. A swift follow-up operation in Kano culminated in Esther’s arrest later that evening.
Further investigation revealed that Esther was recruited by a drug cartel in India, which allegedly financed her trip to Nigeria for the holidays.
To avoid detection by her family, she avoided her home state, Imo, and stayed at a hotel in Enugu for two weeks. She was then flown to Abuja and later to Kano, where she was lodged in a hotel to await the cocaine delivery.
Esther reportedly confessed that she was promised over $5,000 for successfully delivering the drugs to India. NDLEA officials have described the case as a major success in their ongoing efforts to combat drug trafficking.
