NDLEA Arrests Ex-Cocaine Convict Who Allegedly Changed His Name to Resume Trafficking

A former cocaine trafficker allegedly changed his name, opened a herbal tea business and returned to the drug trade. Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said it arrested him in Lagos after tracing cocaine hidden inside phone chargers.

Dunu Bethel Ebubechukwu, 34, was arrested on Friday at Article Market, opposite Trade Fair Market, in Lagos’ Ojo area. The arrest followed the interception on July 31 of 1.2 kilograms of cocaine destined for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Investigators from the agency’s Directorate of Operations and General Investigation traced the shipment to him after weeks of intelligence work.

The NDLEA said Ebubechukwu told investigators he had masterminded drug shipments in the past and discarded his phone SIM card after learning that the latest consignment had been intercepted. A search of his home at 6 Yemishola Street in Ejigbo found phone chargers resembling those used to conceal the cocaine. Their internal components had been removed to make room for the drug.

According to the agency, Ebubechukwu was first arrested in 2011 at Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport after allegedly ingesting 900 grams of cocaine and 130 grams of heroin while attempting to travel to Austria. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. After serving his sentence, the agency said, he changed his name from Dunu Chukwuyenre Enoch to Dunu Bethel Ebubechukwu and allegedly resumed trafficking.

The arrest was part of a wider operation across nine states in the previous week. At Lagos airport, officers seized 966,200 tramadol tablets worth more than 1.1 billion naira from a shipment from Pakistan. In another consignment from Singapore, they recovered 57.8 kilograms of Loud, a synthetic cannabis strain, concealed in cartons of disposable gloves. In Ondo State, officers found 165 bags of cannabis weighing 2,145 kilograms in a hidden compartment of a 20,000-liter fuel tanker whose driver allegedly fled after abandoning it near a church.