Fifty-seven-year-old most wanted overall head of the Mushin, Lagos State drug cartel, Alhaji Sulaiman Jimoh, was on Monday, July 22, 2024, arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at Mushin area at about 10am.
The drug baron, populary known as Temo, was arrested in his enclave after an initial resistance from him and his horde of hoodlums after years of wearing the toga of invincibility.
The NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, who confirmed the suspect’s arrest, said that in the last two years, the anti-drug agency had intercepted large consignments of illicit drugs worth billions of naira owned by Temo.
However, he had reportedly been evasive, while a few encounters with him and his armed gangs in his Mushin enclave had resulted in gunfight.
Some of the recent seizures of his shipments included 14,524.8 kilogrammes of Ghana Loud, a strong strain of cannabis sativa, smuggled into Lagos from Ghana in two trucks and a J5 bus, which were intercepted at Ojuelegba area of Lagos in the early hours of Sunday, January 28, 2024.
Also, two truck-loads of the same substance weighing 8,852kg were intercepted at Eleko beach, Lekki, Lagos, on May 4, 2023 and 252kg of Loud was seized from his enclave in Mushin on Wednesday, July 26, 2023.
The NDLEA spokesman said that in the last two encounters, his men engaged NDLEA operatives in gunfight.
“The drug kingpin was very notorious for always being on the move to evade arrest, but with persistence and determination of the Agency, aided by modern tools and intelligence, the concerted effort to get him paid off on Monday, July 22, 2024, at about 10am, when NDLEA’s surveillance teams on his trail tracked and pinned him down at Igbarere Street, Mushin.
“A reinforcement of about 50 operatives was immediately mobilized to the area while he was attempting to escape in a Mercedes Benz SUV GLE 350 marked 01G-300G.
“His attempt to escape by mobilising hoodlums to engage and distract the operatives however failed, after which he was overpowered and whisked away from the chaotic scene, while his men surrendered to the superior firepower of the anti-narcotic agents who also succeeded in recovering the Mercedes Benz SUV the suspect was found in,” Babafemi stated.
Reacting to Temo’s arrest, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), commended the officers and men of the Lagos Command, Special Monitoring Task Force and other formations tasked with the assignment of getting the drug baron arrested for their resilience, vigilance, and professionalism.
He urged them to intensify the heat on all drug cartels wherever they are located.
“I’m particularly delighted because the arrest was eventually effected in his enclave without any casualty despite the attack on our men.
“This is therefore a clear message to others still involved in this criminal trade of illicit drugs that if they don’t opt out now, we’ll get them because we are just steps away from their doorsteps, and more importantly, they can only run, they can’t hide forever,” Marwa stated.
