Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have thwarted bids by members of an international drug syndicate that operates between Brazil, Ethiopia and Nigeria to smuggle a total of recovered 845 wraps of cocaine consignments weighing 18.72kgs into Lagos through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja.

The drug consignments worth N4.5bn in street value were recovered from two lavatories of an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft during the post landing cleaning of the cabin of flight ET900 from Addis Ababa to Lagos on last Tuesday.

Spokesman for the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday in a statement, said that the illicit drug consignments were wrapped in nine polythene bags and hidden in the waste collectors in the two rear lavatories of the aircraft, from where they were recovered after the MMIA Strategic Command of NDLEA was alerted about the strange objects.

“No fewer than 30 suspects have so far been grilled in connection with the seizure.

“Investigations revealed that the seized drugs were conveyed from Brazil to Ethiopia through ingestion and excreted in Addis Ababa by a set of couriers while some other traffickers picked them up and attempted to smuggle them into Nigeria through the Lagos airport before their attempt was frustrated with the cooperation of the airline’s authorities and other airport stakeholders,” Babafemi said.

In the same vein, attempts by some drug trafficking syndicates to export 2.928kgs cocaine, cannabis and tramadol 225mg concealed in body cream containers, and pieces of art work to Australia, United Arab Emirate (UEA) and the United Kingdom (UK) through some courier companies in Lagos were also blocked by NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI), last Monday.