In a dramatic interception that reads like a scene from a crime thriller, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have apprehended a Nigerian woman, Ihensekhien Miracle Obehi, for attempting to smuggle a significant quantity of cocaine to Iran. The arrest occurred at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State, on Saturday, May 3, 2025.
According to a statement released on Sunday by NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the 43-year-old suspect was caught at the airport’s departure hall as she prepared to board a Qatar Airways flight to Iran via Doha. In a desperate bid to avoid detection, Obehi donned a hijab to mask her identity and intentions.
However, vigilant officers at the airport saw through the disguise. A meticulous search uncovered a shocking concealment method: Obehi had hidden three wraps of cocaine inside her private parts, two large parcels inside a specially modified handbag with false compartments, and had also swallowed 67 pellets of the illicit substance.
“She was placed under strict excretion observation,” the statement revealed. “Over the course of several days and four excretion sessions, she expelled the 67 cocaine pellets she had ingested.”
Further investigation revealed that Obehi was originally instructed to swallow 70 pellets of cocaine but could only manage 67 before her body gave out. She resorted to inserting the remaining three wraps into her private parts, believing this would secure her passage through airport security undetected.
The total weight of the cocaine retrieved from the suspect’s body and belongings amounted to a staggering 2.523 kilogrammes—a deadly haul of the Class A narcotic destined for foreign streets.
The NDLEA has since launched a deeper investigation to uncover the international drug trafficking network behind the operation, with Babafemi reiterating the agency’s unrelenting resolve to clamp down on drug smugglers using Nigerian airports as exit points.
This shocking bust adds to the growing list of high-risk smuggling tactics Nigerian authorities are battling, underscoring the lengths to which traffickers will go and the critical need for sustained surveillance and intelligence operations.
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