Brazil Returnee Arrested for Cocaine Smuggling in MMIA, Lagos

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have arrested UCHE FRANKLIN ONYEKWERE for smuggling of cocaine from Brazil.

ONYEKWERE was picked up at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, with parcels of cocaine concealed in his underwear and footwear.

NDLEA spokesman, FEMI BABAFEMI, said ONYEKWERE was arrested last Thursday, January 29, 2026, on arrival from Brazil, through Johannesburg, South Africa.

BABAFEMI said the forty-seven-year-old man was subjected to full body scan, which exposed the illicit drug concealed in his underwear and footwear.

The spokesman said the suspect disclosed during a preliminary interview that he intended to sell cocaine in Nigeria to raise capital to boost his business and also finance the naming ceremony of his newborn child.

“The suspect who lives in Rua Ever, Mulariuha, São Paulo, claimed that he has been living in Brazil since 2008 while he has been operating a toy business for about nine years”, FEMI BABAFEMI stated.

He said NDLEA operatives also intercepted fifty-five jumbo bags of Canadian Loud variant of Cannabis, weighing one thousand, one hundred and eighty-three kilograms, imported from Montreal, Canada, through the Tincan seaport in Lagos.