Nigerian authorities have arrested an online celebrity and influencer allegedly behind a planned shipment of more than 180 kilogrammes of cocaine from Lagos in a major international drug bust.
Having amassed more than half a million followers on Instagram, Michael is also a self-styled celebrity jeweller and social media influencer.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said Tuesday that Afolabi Kazeem Michael was arrested at Lagos airport while trying to “flee” to Paris after authorities seized 184.5 kilogrammes of cocaine his gang was suspected of attempting to ship via a courier company. Worth about 39 billion naira (about $28.8 million) in street value, according to the drugs agency, the operation was the “largest cocaine seizure in a courier company in Nigeria”, NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi said in a statement. Michael is suspected to be the Nigerian “arrowhead” of a cartel that was using Nigeria as a transit hub to move cocaine from South America to the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia, authorities said. NDLEA boss Mohammed Buba Marwa, a former army general, said drug gangs have in recent years turned to trafficking their drugs through courier companies, hoping to exploit what they perceive as a “softer, less monitored channel for moving narcotics across international borders”.
