JNIA police arrested a Nigerian identified as Ejiofor Ohagwu in unlawful possession of 4.3 kilogrammes of illicit substance.
Dar es Salaam. Nigerians continue using the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) in Dar es Salaam as their drug trafficking exit point following the latest arrest a few hours into the New Year of another drug mule from the West African nation.
JNIA police arrested a Nigerian identified as Ejiofor Ohagwu in unlawful possession of 4.3 kilogrammes of illicit substance.
JNIA police commander Martin Otieno said yesterday Ohagwu was arrested at 1.50am as he was about to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to the Nigerian city of Lagos through Addis Ababa.
“The man was arrested in possession of the drugs that he had hid in two bags,” Mr Otieno told a news conference at Tanzania’s largest airport.
He said the value and type of the drugs were yet to be established, adding that samples have been sent to the chief government chemist for tests.
“The suspect covered the drugs in a way that it was not easy to detect but thanks to the advanced screening technology put in place,” said Mr Otieno.
Mr Otieno said the man had self-designed extra-compartments at the bottom of the suitcases using fibre material where he kept the drugs. On top of the hidden compartments he put shoes.
“We should give information of suspected people involved in the illicity business. Our target is to catch the big dealers,” he said.
In June last year, officers of the anti-drugs unit (ADU) at the JNIA arrested a 52-year-old Nigerian with 100 cocaine-filled capsules worth then about Sh90 million ($53,460).
Antony Ifeanyichukwu Okafor had just arrived from Cameroon aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight when officers of a special-task force on drugs became suspicious and put him under supervision.
Upon his arrest, he told the police that he had come to Tanzania to meet friends and relatives. However, as he was under police monitoring, off-loaded the drugs, whereby he later confessed to have entered the country in search of a market for the drugs.
His arrest came amid reports that Nigerians topped the list of foreigners arrested at Tanzanian airports with drugs.
Out of 57 foreigners arrested in the past two-and-half-years, the number Nigerians were 18, followed by four Ghanaians.
Police reports suggest that the Nigerians dealing in drugs work with cartels operating principally in East Africa but go as far as China, Brazil, Canada, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Nearly all the suspects arrested during that period carried cocaine originating from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
In June last year, the High Court in Moshi handed a Nigerian national a life sentence for drug trafficking.
The 43-year-old Vivian Edigin was convicted of trafficking 797.56 grammes of cocaine worth Sh300 million.
In November last year, Chukwudi Okechukwu, a Nigerian pastor who preached in Tanzania under the auspices of his Lord Chosen Church was sentenced to 30 years in jail after being convicted of smuggling cocaine worth Sh3.1 billion.
He was jailed alongside fellow Nigerian, Paul Ikechukwu, South African Stan Hycent and Pakistani Shoaib Mohammad Ayazi.
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