Posted by Reuters on
Nigerian police have arrested a 31-year-old man trying to smuggle 6 kg of cocaine to Israel, Nigeria's anti-narcotics agency said on Monday.
Nigerian police have arrested a 31-year-old man trying to smuggle 6 kg of cocaine to Israel, Nigeria's anti-narcotics agency said on Monday.
The man was arrested at Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos on Friday trying to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight with a final destination of Tel-Aviv, the agency said.
"(The suspect) was arrested following the detection of the hard drugs which was concealed in his luggage," the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said in a statement.
The statement quoted the suspect, who lives in Tel-Aviv, as saying he was offered 2.5 million naira ($19,776) by a London-based Nigerian to smuggle the cocaine.
Nigeria does not produce narcotics but its porous borders, lax airport security and corrupt bureaucracy have made it a major conduit for hard drugs from Asia and Latin America to markets in wealthy Western countries.
Sentences for convicted drug smugglers are among the lightest in the world.