NDLEA arrests 6 for swallowing $156,000 cash

Five persons including a Bureau De Change operator were yesterday arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) while in the process of swallowing $156,000 (about N31, 083, 000.00) in an hotel room along the Airport Road, Lagos.
They were alleged to be swallowing the cash with the intention of taking it outside the country for money laundering purposes.
NDLEA Commander, Joint Task Force (JTF) Mr. Adeniyi Muyiwa, gave the names of the suspects as Nwokenta Kingsley, 37, a Bureau de change operator, also known as Buchito; Onwuasoanya Augustine Chukwuemeka, 54, who lives in Brazil and Christian Okoli Ifor, 35, based in Brazil.
Others are Nwokenta Emmanuel Maduakolam, 31; Ezenwa Ikenna, 28, a specialist in wrapping; and Ezenwa Uzoma, a 33-year-old hotel manager.
Speaking on the arrest, the chairman of NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, operators of bureau de change who fail to work within the confines of the law establishing them shall be severely sanctioned.

Read also: NDLEA invites brother of suspected drug courier

Muyiwa stressed that an interim investigation report by the anti-narcotics agency revealed that Mr. Kingsley, a.k.a Buchito was the brain behind the act.
According him, Mr. Kingsley allegedly supplied $120,000 to be swallowed and illicitly exported to Brazil.
He said: “Onwuasoanya Augustine Chukwuemeka swallowed 74 wraps of dollars amounting to one hundred and eleven thousand ($111,000). Christian Okoli Ifor who resides in Brazil had forty-five thousand dollars which he wanted to swallow. Nwokenta Emmanuel who is the manager of Amazon Bureau de Change played a supportive role in the alleged crime. Ezenwa Ikenna was hired to wrap the money.

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