{"id":5840,"date":"2015-08-27T23:33:02","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T23:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5840"},"modified":"2015-08-27T23:33:02","modified_gmt":"2015-08-27T23:33:02","slug":"how-we-smuggle-cocaine-aboard-flights-arik-air-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5840","title":{"rendered":"How we smuggle cocaine aboard flights \u2013 Arik Air staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

A staff of Arik Air has told the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency investigators how members of staff of the airline smuggle illicit drugs aboard flights.
\nOliver Chibuzor, a catering loader at the airline who has been arrested by NDLEA officials, said they subvert airport security checks by concealing cocaine in catering supplies.
\nOn Monday, Chika Udensi, a senior member of the Arik Air cabin crew\u200e, was arrested by UK Border Force officials with 20 kilogrammes of cocaine at Heathrow Airport in London.
\nMr. Udensi, an air steward, allegedly concealed the cocaine which has an estimated street value of N100 million, within the \u201cconstruction of\u200e laptop bags,\u201d according to the NDLEA.
\n\u200eIn a statement on Thursday, the NDLEA quoted Mr. Chibuzor as telling narcotic investigators that he was introduced into the illicit drug business by Mr. Udensi.
\n\u201cWhenever Chika gives me the drug, I will hide it in catering supplies. Chika knows where to collect the drug inside the flight,\u201d \u200ethe agency quoted Mr. Chibuzor as stating during interrogation by investigators.
\n\u201cThey pay me N400, 000 per bag. I was expecting N1.2 million for the three bags that I smuggled into the aircraft,\u201d he said.
\nThe anti-narcotics agency said that preliminary investigation revealed that both Messrs Udensi and Chibuzor had been infiltrated by a suspected drug cartel.
\nMr. Chibuzor, who hails from Isiala Ngwa North local government of Abia State, is a graduate of Business Administration and was employed by Arik Air in 2009, according to the NDLEA.
\n\u200eAhmadu Giade, NDLEA\u2019s Chairman, said he had directed that henceforth all airport workers must be extensively searched.
\n\u201cThe agency has taken drastic measures to avert infiltration of airport workers by criminal syndicates,\u201d Mr. Giade said.
\n\u201cAirline officials and airport workers shall be subjected to comprehensive search. The NDLEA will resist any act capable of undermining security at all entry and exit points,\u201d he said.
\nMr. Giade also said that\u200e all catering trucks, luggage trucks, aviation fuel tankers, machines and personnel whose duty directly or indirectly relates to tarmac and flight operations would be subjected to full screening.
\nAs part of its investigation, the NDLEA said its operatives had searched \u200ethe rented apartment of Mr. Udensi in Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb, where he lives with his mother and siblings. His wife and children are based in Canada.
\nThe NDLEA also said that Mr. Udensi\u2019s Range Rover car\u200e, which had been impounded and was parked at the airline\u2019s premises, had been moved to the agency\u2019s office as exhibit.<\/p>\n

Premium Times\"Arik\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A staff of Arik Air has told the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency investigators how members of staff of the airline smuggle illicit drugs aboard flights. Oliver Chibuzor, a catering loader at the airline who has been arrested by NDLEA officials, said they subvert airport security checks by concealing cocaine in catering supplies. On Monday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[553,551,554,552],"class_list":["post-5840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-ahmadu-giade","tag-arik","tag-chika-udensi","tag-ndlea"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Arik.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1wc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5842,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5840\/revisions\/5842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}