Investigation: Cargo Terminal, MMIA Becoming Major Gateway for Drug Trafficking in W’Africa

Chinedu Eze

It has emerged that the cargo terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos has become major hub and gateway for drug trafficking in West Africa.

Despite the efforts to significantly curtail the movement of illicit drugs through the airport, the cargo terminal has increasingly continued to record high number of consignments.

Inside sources revealed that most of the drugs discovered at the cargo terminal were always in high volumes adding that despite deterrent efforts, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) still see incessant drug movements through the terminal.

Following the embarrassing development, it waslearnt that a recent agreement was allegedly reached between NDLEA and the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc (NAHCO) and Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc (SAHCO) on how drug bursts should be reported. 

According to the agreement, whenever there is drug burst not involving high volumes the name of the handling company where the drug was intercepted should not be mentioned. 

The purported agreement, sources said, was at the behest of Aviation Ground Handling Association of Nigeria (AGHAN), in the effort to boost cooperationand collaboration. 

Consequently, NDLEA recent reports just identify the Lagos airport as the airport of arrest without identifying the handling company that the drug was discovered in its facility.

Insiders at the handling companies volunteered that while corporate organisations and agencies like the handling companies, airlines, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) may not be involved in the illicit drug trafficking, their workers allegedly engage in the nefarious trade.

“There are agents and their collaborators. Their collaborators are members of staff of some companies and clearing agents. These agents will never stop in engaging in the business to make at least N1 million a month, but members of the staff of some organisations involved in cargo handling could be dealt with. And recently a lot of them are being very careful. 

“These days they are involved in moving small drugs they put in duvet and because of the stringent conditions the handling companies gave the members of staff, such incidents have been significantly curtailed,” one source said.

“There was an incident last year involving Ethiopian Airlines flight when the aircraft landed and everybody had left the aircraft but they left a big black bag and when members of our staff came to clean the aircraft; they wondered why the bag was left in the aircraft when every passenger had left. The head of the cleaners being an experiencedperson raised the alarm and alerted the concerned authority and the bag was taken out and drug was discovered in it.

“I can tell you that there is connivance between Customs officials, airline staff members and handling company officials. If the cleaners did not raise the alarm when they saw that bag, the people who knew about the consignment will follow the cleaners. When they reach the place they will trash the wastes, those involved in the drug movement will come and carry it. But in this case, they knew the drug has been busted and you will not see anyone around it,” the insider further said.

The source said every drug that is coming to Nigeria was monitored by some individuals ‘doing legitimate jobs at the airport’.

A former senior staff of NDLEA who retired last year, told THISDAY that the Lagos airport is West Africa hub for drug trafficking but the biggest consignment of drugs is hauled through the sea and Nigeria is a huge depot.

“Drug cartel is a big organisation with a lot of networks. They use the air to move drugs very fast but they use the sea to move heavy drugs. Airport workers, from the staff members of relevant agencies to airline officials, many are on their payroll, but you will never notice. Many of those arrested are those implicated because they did not pay up. 

“Mode of concealment is only known by insiders. Drugs come in and leave the country everyday but heavy volumes are moved through marine transport,” the former NDLEA staff said.

THISDAY also learnt that NDLEA has recorded significant arrests and seizures across Nigeria on land, in the sea, and in the air, as statistics showed that from the early days drug couriers or traffickers patronised some of the following airlines: Ethiopia Airline, Turkish Airline, Qatar Airways, British Airways, Kenya Airways, KLM, Lufthansa, RwandAir, Saudia Airlines, South Africa Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Air France amongst others to import or export narcotics.

However, the spokesperson of SAHCO, Mrs. Adetola Vanessa Uansohia, said that both NAHCO and SAHCO remained gateways, stressing that at SAHCO the management puts very stringent measures in place to track the minutest articles because “we have a lot of things and equipment on ground to make sure illicit substances don’t get through our system.

“For us, it is zero tolerance,” she said.

Also, inside source spoke about Ethiopian Airlines and said that drug busts associated to it has nothing to do with the airline because the airline in the cargo section has only a cargo manager, an Ethiopian and a Nigerian sales officer. The source also told THISDAY that recently a drug was found in the lavatory of one of the airline’s aircraft and the airline reported it to concerned authority.

“Drug trafficking is a Nigerian thing. The airline is concerned with flying the aircraft and doing business. I can tell you that Nigerians in Ethiopian prison are those caught with drugs because they have very stringent screening process. Some of those Nigerians swallowed the drugs and were caught,” the insider told THISDAY.

Also, the Chairman of NDLEA, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (rtd), in 2021 

described the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos as Nigeria’s drug trafficking hub.

“Murtala Mohammed International Airport remains the epicentre of the spectacular seizures, including what stands today as the singular biggest seizure from an individual in 15 years, which was 26.840kg of cocaine smuggled from Brazil in January; 24.05 kg of heroin in April; 27.95 kg of cocaine in May, and 26.15kg of heroin in May,” Marwa had said.

He said the agency had seized more than 2.7 million kilograms of illicit drugs worth over N100 billion in ten months.

In the same 2021, NDLEA intercepted cannabis and heroin at the shed of SAHCO and NAHCO at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

But speaking during an event last month, the Commander of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Strategic Command of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Usman Ali Wadar, said the agency has recorded 69 per cent drop in drug seizures at Lagos airport in two years.

According to Wadar, in 2022 about 23 tonnes of drugs were seized at the Lagos airport but the numbers have significantly reduced to seven tonnes, which represents a 69 per cent drop in the number of seizures.

“In 2018, more than 14 million Nigerians tested for drugs. When I came on board, I told my team that we needed to stop the menace. Today we are stopping at nothing to ensure we have aa drug-free Nigeria. This is why since 2022, the number of drugs seized at Lagos airport alone has drastically reduced from 23 tonnes to seven tonnes,” he said.

But despite the cheering disclosure, drug trafficking through the route may fluctuate but has really not been abated, going by the reports of the arrests made by NDLEA on daily basis.

THISDAY contacted the spokesman of NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, who did not response to calls nor tomessages sent to him, but a senior official of the agency told THISDAY that since Marwa took over as Chairman of NDLEA, the organisation has recorded tremendous improvement in arresting drug traffickers.