Editorial Team/Staff Writers
A Nigerian social media influencer has been arrested in connection with a global drug trafficking network suspected of being behind seized cocaine worth nearly $28m (shs104.4bn), according to the BBC.
The authorities detained Afolabi Kazeem Micheal at an airport in Lagos, the commercial capital, last week as he prepared to board a flight to Paris, the BBC reported, citing Nigeria’s drug enforcement agency. The cocaine was destined for the UK.
“Upon credible intelligence that he intended to flee the country […] our operatives moved decisively and apprehended him at the boarding gate… just as he attempted to escape the reach of the law,” said General Buba Marwa, the head of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Known as “KC Luxury” to his 700,000 Instagram followers, Mr Michael, 49, presented himself online as a businessman dealing in gold and luxury goods.
Officials cited by the BBC allege he was the Nigerian “arrowhead” of a cartel trafficking cocaine from South America through Nigeria to Europe and Asia.
Mr Micheal has not commented on the allegations or been charged in court.
NDLEA said 184.5kg of cocaine was found concealed in brown boxes at a courier facility in Lagos on Monday 3 August.
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The agency said it was being exported by an international trafficking network that for years had used Nigeria as a transit hub to move drugs to the UK, other parts of Europe and to Asia.
Mr Micheal was arrested 10 days later at Lagos’s Murtala Mohammed International Airport as he attempted to leave the country on a business-class flight to the French capital.
According to the BBC, he was carrying more than $12,840 in cash in three currencies—euros, pounds and naira—as well as expensive jewellery “consistent with the proceeds of his illicit trade” when he was arrested, the agency said.
A second detained suspect, Lawal Mujab Kehinde, is alleged to have been a staff member of a logistics company through which the cocaine was transported.
The NDLEA alleged the 33-year-old packaged cocaine for export and was paid in cash. Kehinde has not commented on the allegations or been charged in court.
The agency said other suspected members of the network in the UK have also been arrested by counterpart law enforcement agencies overseas.
The BBC said it was chasing the UK authorities for comment.
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