The media is awash with news of drug peddlers caught by security operatives, especially men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), at airports, seaports – in cargoes and shipment – and even at checkpoints on highways.

The magnitude of drug menace in Nigeria is further underscored by uncovering of large quantities of illicit drugs at local transportation services within the country.

It was also observed that the traffickers are becoming more inventive, devising most unusual methods to outsmart the scrutiny of security agencies.

Daily Trust highlights some of these weird ways drug traffickers adopt to conceal the contraband.

Using shoes

The NDLEA recently arrested one Lawal Oyenuga at the screening point of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos State, while waiting to board a flight to Saudi Arabia.

According to the anti-narcotic agency, the suspect had attempted to smuggle 400 grams of cocaine concealed in the soles of a pair of blue feathery palm sandals allegedly given to him by one Wasiu Gbolahan out of Nigeria.

Drugs concealed in sandals

The suspect said he was supposed to ingest the drug but when it became impossible, he resorted to trafficking it in palm sandals.

A few weeks before Oyenuga’s arrest, a 56-year-old mother of four was arrested with the same quantity of cocaine concealed in her sandals and headed for the same destination (Saudi Arabia) as Oyenuga.

Hidden in food items

In August last year, the NDLEA said that it seized 11.9kg of crystal methamphetamine concealed in a box containing heads of fish.

The agency stated that the 442 drug pieces were placed in seven boxes and wrapped with foil paper and concealed in the heads of hundreds of smoked catfish.

Also in August, 1.45kg of cannabis was found concealed in granulated melon and crayfish, among other food condiments. A carton of food items was also used to conceal 500 grams of cannabis.

Concealed in private parts

In June last year NDLEA arrested a Brazilian returnee with pellets of cocaine concealed in his private parts.

According to the agency the suspect was nabbed upon arrival to Nigeria on an Ethiopian Airline flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Addis Ababa.

The suspect had swallowed 50 wraps of cocaine before departing Brazil and excreted 48 pellets in Addis Ababa where he handed them over to another person. He was unable to excrete the remaining two wraps at the hotel room in Addis Ababa before boarding his flight.

Packages in the mail.

Drugs are often concealed inside things such as water pumps, electronic equipment, cans, farming equipment.

What drug smugglers do is to send a large shipment of legitimate goods, with only one or two loaded with drugs, in the hope that it will get through agencies unnoticed.

Drugs concealed in statue

Last week, NDLEA operatives thwarted attempts by Organised Criminal Groups (OCGs) to use various disingenuous modes of concealment to import consignments of illicit substances into Nigeria and export the same to the United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirate (UEA) through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja and Tincan seaport in Lagos State.

No less than 37.5kgs of such illicit consignments were intercepted in the past week, with the arrest of 11 suspects in interdiction operations that led to the seizure of almost four tons of skunk in Kaduna, Kano and Lagos states.

The spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, said in Abuja that at the Lagos airport, a freight agent Ogunsina Damilare was arrested on Friday 6^thJanuary following a bid to export 1.5kgs of skunk hidden in foodstuffs to Dubai, UAE through the SAHCO export shed of the MMIA.

According to him, a similar attempt to ship 11.5kgs of the same substance to the United Kingdom was frustrated when the consignment concealed in a giant wooden sculpture was intercepted by NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations (DOGI) at a courier company in Lagos. (Daily Trust)