Male condom does more than prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, at least so have drug traffickers in Nigeria shown.
This was the experience of officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, who said male condoms have become objects used by desperate drug traffickers to conceal liquid cocaine.
This discovery was made following the arrest of four suspects recently at the Murtala Mohammed Interenational Airport, Lagos.
According to the spokesperson of the NDLEA, Mitchel Ofoyeju, this new method by traffickers is the first in the history of the country as the anti-narcotic agency spread its drag net on drug barons and traffickers in and around the country.
Ofoyeju said: “Some of the late tricks uncovered by Nigerian anti-narcotic agents include the arrest of drug traffickers who smuggle heroin into the country from Tanzania.
“In addition, drug couriers now ingest liquid cocaine poured into male condoms for the first time.
“These tricks were uncovered at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos.”
The NDLEA Commander at the airport, Hamza Umar, gave the names of the four suspected drug traffickers as Ezeani Obinna, Ozoemena Okoye Samuel, Egbo Innocent Oluchukwu and Ejimbe Christian Chidi.
Two of the suspects, Obinna, 28, who is an auto dealer at Ladipo Market, Lagos. and Samuel, 27, a dealer in electrical parts, also in Lagos, were arrested with heroin as they came in from Tanzania.
The two others, Oluchukwu and Chidi, reportedly ingested liquid cocaine concealed in male condoms to avoid detection.
Hamza said:“The suspects thought that scanning machine will not detect liquid cocaine, but they were wrong.
“Even those coming from Tanzania felt that there will be no attention on them.
“We shall continue to do our best to prevent traffickers from using this airport.”
According to Hamza, the suspects from Tanzania were detected during screening of passengers on Kenya Airways while the others arrived from Venezuela with Emergency Travel Certificate aboard South Africa Airways.
Hamza added: “This is the first case of liquid cocaine ingestion in the country.
“The liquid cocaine, which is oily, was packed inside condoms.
“Egbo Innocent Oluchukwu, a 43-year-old trader excreted 70 wraps of the oily cocaine, weighing 2kg.
“Ejimbe Christian Chidi, 32-years-old teacher, swallowed 54 wraps of same oily cocaine, weighing 1.350kg.”
Egbo has lived in Venezuela for 10 years.
He arrived the country with an Emergency Travel Certificate, with number 00000600. as he said he was lured to traffick liquid cocaine by a Venezulan drug cartel.
Egbo said: “The Venezuelan, who gave me the drug, told me that it will be difficult for machine to detect liquid cocaine that is ingested.
“I ingested 70 wraps of the drug, using water, because I was desperate.
“It is not that drug trafficking is a good thing but I wanted to solve my personal problem.
“They promised to pay me the sum of 6,000 dollars.
“I am married with two children and I need the money to cater for my family.”
Ejimbe is from Anambra State.
He teaches English at a Language School inVenezuela.
He is single and claimed to have lived in Caracas, Venezuela for eight years.
He added: “I am a 2002 graduate from the University of Maiduguri.
“I excreted 54 wraps and they promised to pay men N4 million.
“My intention was to get married and settle down.”
Reacting to the arrest, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, urged regional anti-narcotic agencies to be deeply involved in counter narcotic operations in Africa.
Giade said: “Heroin is usually smuggled from Pakistan, Iran and India.
“But things are changing with the seizure of heroin coming from Tanzania.
“This is strange because they have turned drug trafficking into a relay race.
“The first set of traffickers will smuggle heroin from Pakistan to Tanzania, while another set will take it from Tanzania to Nigeria.
“This is a new plan to evade arrest but we shall now beam our searchlight on African flights.”
Ofoyeju said the suspects will be charged to court after thorough investigation.