A graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka [UNN] has been arrested in Thailand for allegedly paying a Kenya national to smuggle 1.2kilograms of cocaine into the country.
Thailand’s Narcotics Control Board (NCB) announced it arrested the Nigerian, one Osita Joseph Ukpa, and his Kenyan accomplice, one Glenn Chibasellow Ooko, on Wednesday.
According to reports, NCB operatives began a manhunt for Ukpa after Ooko was stopped at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok and 68 packets of cocaine were found in his stomach.
The NCB chief, Niyom Termsrisuk, in a statement said Airport Interdiction Task Force officers arrested 43-year-old Ooko at the airport and 40-year-old Osita in Bangkok.
He said the task force had arrested 43 people between October 2018 and last month.
Thirty-six were trying to smuggle drugs out and seven to smuggle drugs in. They intercepted 21,685 grams of crystal meth (“ice”), 24,100 grams of heroin, 30,478 ecstasy pills, 25,190 grams of cocaine and 32,214 grams of ketamine at the various international airports.
Niyom warned Thais travelling abroad, especially to Japan, to spurn strangers asking them to carry anything on their behalf. They could be duped into smuggling narcotics.
He said there were cases of Thai travellers being arrested for attempting to smuggle drugs into Japan, most often women lured by the promise of free passage if they carried drugs in their luggage
