Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have successfully apprehended two drug kingpins based in Qatar and seized a significant consignment of methamphetamine. Eyah Celestine Nnamdi, alias Murphy, and Ugwuoke Peter Oluchukwu were arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos.
According to Femi Babafemi, the spokesman for NDLEA, the first arrest took place on June 9 when Ugwuoke was attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight at Terminal 2 of the Lagos airport. NDLEA officers, during the outward clearance process, discovered that the suspect, using an Ivorian international passport under the name Hien Narcisse, was planning to travel to Doha. Further inspection of his black carry-on luggage revealed a false bottom concealing two parcels of crystalline substance weighing 1.00kg. Subsequent testing confirmed the substance to be methamphetamine.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Ugwuoke is a Nigerian national who had acquired an Ivorian passport for his travels. He confessed to having traveled to Qatar in August 2022 and returned to Nigeria about two months ago to make arrangements for the transportation of the drug consignment.
Further investigations led NDLEA operatives to Eyah Celestine Nnamdi, known as Murphy, who was located in Eziani, his hometown in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State. It was discovered that Eyah had been residing in Indonesia for several years before relocating to Doha, Qatar. Ugwuoke, who claimed to hold a National Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, was identified as Eyah’s Qatar-based senior partner in the drug trade.
