U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested a New York man on heroin smuggling allegations last week. The agency is attempting to curb what appears to be a growing trend in heroin smuggling into the United States.

Michael Babatunde Ayodele, 19, from Queens, N.Y., was referred for a secondary inspection after he arrived on Jan. 16 flight from Nigeria. The flight connected through Kenya and Switzerland.

Officers detected inconsistencies in Ayodele’s story about visiting family in Nigeria, according to court documents. He asked to use the restroom during the inspection, and, according to CBP, passed through 55 pellets. The thumb-sized pellets later tested positive for heroin.

Ayodele was transported to a local hospital, where he passed an additional 31 heroin pellets. The 86 pellets weight 1,089 grams – more than 2 pounds, 6 ounces. The narcotics have an approximate street value of $78,000.

Ayodele’s arrest came just 13 days after CBP officers arrested 61-year-old alleged Nigerian drug smuggler Adekunle Titus Adetokunbo. Adetokunbo arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport from Ghana on Jan. 5.

In that case, CBP officers detected inconsistencies during their inspection and he was transported to a local hospital, where x-rays indicated the presence of foreign objects inside of him.

The heroin was worth approximately $31,000 on the street.

“Heroin is a highly addictive and very dangerous narcotic,” said Christopher Hess, a CBP port director. “Customs and Border Protection officers take very serious their mission to intercept this deadly poison before it can reach our community.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia is prosecuting both cases.

“These continuing heroin smuggling attempts from Africa raise serious concern for Customs and Border Protection officers,” Hess said. “We’re hopeful that these arrests send a strong signal that CBP officers are proving successful at detecting internal concealment methods, and that we’re serious about intercepting this deadly poison before it can reach our communities.”

Both men, along with the product, were turned over to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

CBP routinely conducts random inspection operations on arriving and departing passengers searching for narcotics, currency, weapons and other prohibited or illicit products.

Heroin haze

The arrests of Ayodele and Adetokunbo are just two in a string of heroin-related incidents that CBP officers at Dulles Airport have foiled this year.

An international heroin trafficking ring was put to rest on Jan. 17, as Edward “Cujoe Opoku” MaCauley, 61, of Ghana, pleaded guilty to leading the illegal smuggling operation.

U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris accepted the plea. MaCauley was indicted on April 28, 2011.

MaCauley used couriers to smuggle multiple kilograms of heroin from Ghana into the U.S., according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He faces a mandatory minimum 10-year penalty for conspiring to import heroin and a maximum sentence of life in prison. He will be sentenced on April 6.

MaCauley recruited couriers to hide heroin in carry-on bags and wigs while traveling through Washington Dulles International Airport. The organization paid the couriers and provided airfare, passports and hotel accommodations, according to court documents.

Of nine individuals charged as members of the drug ring, four have pleaded guilty.

In that case, the DEA conducted the investigation, and federal agencies remain as diligent as ever to try and curb what appears to be a growing trend.