Last night police arrested a Nigerian drug mule who had just landed at the airport from Sao Paulo.

In a statement, the police say the drug mule had just landed from São Paulo and was connecting to Nigeria when he met with a cleaner at the airport and handed the cleaner some airline headphones.

Suspecting there was something amiss, a multidisciplinary team, comprising the police, airport security, the Border Management Authority (BMA) and Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) staff confiscated the headphones and found cocaine stuffed in them.

The drug mule claimed he was a street vendor in Nigeria and had gone to Brazil to buy clothes and shoes which he sells in his home country.

Police have launched a manhunt for the cleaner who managed to evade arrest.

National police Spokesperson Athlenda Mathe says, “We continue to urge our members to continue with the hard work. We are quite encouraged with the level of response at the O.R. Tambo airport in terms of combating and preventing the illicit drug trafficking trade.”
 

--SABC--