A 26-year-old nursing student in India, Esther Onyinyechi Uzodinma, has been nabbed by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency before ingesting 76 wraps of cocaine.
The Nigerian suspect is a 200-level student of nursing at the Noida International University, Uttar Pradesh, located in India.
Uzodinma was about to swallow 76 wraps of cocaine hours before her return flight to the South Asian country through the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano when her move was thwarted by NDLEA operatives.
She was scheduled to return to Delhi, India from MAKIA, Kano on Qatar Airways flight 1432 on January 17, 2025, but was arrested in her room at Royal Park Hotel, Sabon Garin, Kano at 11:30pm on January 16, 2025 while awaiting the cocaine consignment she was to ingest.
Her lid was blown open when NDLEA operatives on patrol along Okene-Lokoja Expressway in Kogi State on January 16, 2025 intercepted 31-year-old Cosmas Okorie in a commuter bus from Lagos to Kano.
Inside Okorie’s black polythene bag was an audio speaker, which was used to conceal 76 pellets of cocaine weighing 1.340 kilograms, which he was going to deliver to Uzodinma in Kano.
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A swift follow up operation in Kano led to the arrest of the female nursing university student later the same day.
In her statement, Uzodinma claimed the drug cartel she was working for recruited her in India and paid for her trip to Nigeria to enjoy her Christmas and New Year holidays.
To avoid her parents knowing she was in Nigeria, she did not travel to her home state, Imo, but was lodged for two weeks in a hotel in Enugu, from where she was flown to Abuja and then Kano, where she was lodged at Royal Park Hotel to swallow the 76 pellets of cocaine sent to her from Lagos before taking her Qatar Airways flight to India on Friday morning.
She said she was promised over $5,000 upon successful delivery of the illicit consignment in India.