A fugitive drug baron, Ntoruka Emmanuel Chinedu, and former international footballer Hunkarin Segun George have been sentenced to a combined 24 years imprisonment by the Federal High Court in Lagos for importing 7.050 kilograms of cocaine. Justice Musa Kakaki on Friday, July 24, 2026 handed Chinedu 20 years without option of fine for unlawfully importing 6.250kg of cocaine in 2015, and a further 2 years for conspiring with George to import 800g in 2025. George received 2 years for the conspiracy charge.
Chinedu was first arraigned in September 2015 but jumped bail and evaded trial for nearly 10 years. He was re-arrested by NDLEA on June 24, 2025 at Murtala Muhammed International Airport after he was caught with 800g of cocaine on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa. Investigations showed he collected the luggage in Ethiopia before flying to Lagos, where George — who played football in Brazil — was waiting at the airport carpark to collect it. George told investigators he had trafficked drugs twice from Brazil to Ethiopia while playing abroad.
NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), described the judgment as a reaffirmation of the courts’ commitment to ridding Nigeria of drug trafficking. He commended officers involved in the arrest, investigation and prosecution, noting that Chinedu’s re-arrest after a decade on the run shows the Agency’s persistence in tracking fugitives. Marwa said NDLEA will continue to work with the judiciary and other stakeholders to ensure that no drug trafficker, regardless of status or time spent evading justice, escapes the law.
