The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency’s (NDLEA) operatives have arrested Qatar-based drug kingpins Eyah Celestine Nnamdi, alias Murphy, and Ugwuoke Peter Oluchukwu following the interception of their methamphetamine consignment at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos.
Ugwuoke was the first to be arrested on June 9 during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways passengers at the departure point, Terminal 2 of the Lagos airport.
NDLEA officers discovered that the suspect was travelling to Doha with an Ivorian international passport with the name Hien Narcisse. Further scrutiny of his black carry-on luggage led to the discovery of a false bottom concealing two parcels of crystalline substance that tested positive for methamphetamine and weighed 1.00kg.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect is a Nigerian who had gone to obtain an Ivorian passport for his travels. He confessed that he travelled to Qatar in August 2022 and returned from the Arab nation about two months ago to make perfect arrangements for the movement of the drug consignment.
A further probe led operatives to discover that his Qatar-based senior partner in the trade, simply identified as Murphy, was lurking around in Eziani, his home town in Nsukka LGA, Enugu State. Ugwuoke, who hails from the Igboeze North Local Government Area of the state, claims he holds a National Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Federal Polytechnic Oko.
A prompt deployment of NDLEA operatives on June 10 to the Eziani community of Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State led to the arrest of Murphy, whose true identity was later discovered to be Eyah Celestine Nnamdi, who had lived in Indonesia for some years before relocating to Doha, Qatar.