The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested a 38-year-old South African woman, Will Ann, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 5.75 kilograms of heroin into Nigeria while travelling with her three-year-old son.
According to the agency, the suspect was arrested on Monday, July 6, 2026, during the inward clearance of passengers aboard Qatar Airways Flight QR1433 from Doha.
NDLEA said the suspect allegedly concealed 14 large blocks of heroin in two suitcases and initially denied travelling with any checked-in luggage.
In a statement issued on Sunday by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, the anti-narcotics agency said its operatives established that the baggage tags matched the claim tags attached to the suspect’s passport, prompting her to admit ownership of the bags.
The statement read, “Though she initially denied travelling with check-in bags, after operatives were able to quickly establish that the two bags containing the drugs had tags which tallied with the claim tags attached to her passport, she recanted and admitted ownership of the bags, adding that she forgot she checked in the two bags.”
The agency said the suspect claimed she travelled from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
NDLEA further alleged that intelligence indicated she was part of a transnational drug trafficking organisation operating along the Cambodia-South Africa axis with her husband
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, arrested a 48-year-old commercial motorcycle rider, Onyechere Chinadu, after he arrived from Madagascar via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
The agency said an initial search of his backpack uncovered 87 wraps of methamphetamine concealed in clothing.
According to the statement, the suspect confessed that he had worked as an okada rider in Lagos for 15 years before being recruited into drug trafficking by a Uganda-based associate.
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