Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested two Pakistani businessmen at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos State, with eight kilogrammes of cocaine concealed in a public address system while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Lahole, Pakistan via Doha.
The two suspects – Asif Muhammed, aged 45, and Hussain Naveed, 57 – who hold Nigerian residence permits suspected to be fake, are frequent travelers to Nigeria under the guise of doing textile business.
According to the Agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, November 6, 2022, the Pakistanis were arrested on Saturday November 5 at the Lagos airport barely a week after they came to Nigeria.
Operatives at the SAHCO import shed of the airport on Friday, November 4, seized 13 cartons of Tramadol 225mg and 200mg imported from Karachi, Pakistan.
The consignment had a total weight of 465.10kg and 642,800 pills of the pharmaceutical opioid, the NDLEA spokesman said.
On Thursday, November 3, operatives at the NAHCO export shed of the airport also intercepted a consignment of different illicit drugs, including cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamine, Tramadol 225mg and Rohyphnol concealed in footwears and soap packs going to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dubai.
This led to the arrest of a 32-year-old lady, Oladitan Serah Olufunmilayo, who presented the consignment for export.
Meanwhile, two businessmen who had been on the run for months over their involvement in drug trafficking were arrested by anti-narcotic officers assigned to track them.
One of the suspects, Nnebo Ikechukwu Christopher had reportedly been on the wanted list for his role in the importation of 40 cartons containing 346,800 pills of Co-codamol, a brand of paracetamol with Codeine seized at the cargo wing of the MMIA local airport since March 2022, before his arrest on Thursday, November 3.
In the same vein, operatives on the trail of an automobile parts dealer, Omeje Oliver (a.k.a David Mark) since April eventually arrested him on Monday, October 31, in Enugu where he fled to after abandoning his business at Aspanda, Trade Fair Complex Lagos.
He was wanted in connection with the seizure of 600 grammes of heroin concealed inside soles of lady’s footwears going to Liberia on April 16.
On the same day Omeje was arrested, operatives at the SAHCO export shed of the Lagos airport intercepted 550 grammes of cannabis loud concealed in machine parts going to Dubai, UAE, while the sender, Ogbure Victor Ifeanyi, was later arrested.
In Katsina State, operatives on patrol at Malumfashi-Zaria road, arrested a blind man, Bukar Haruna, 52, and his son Saka Haruna, 30 while heading to Niger Republic with 20.5kg cannabis and 10 grammes of exol-5.
They were said to have hailed from Damagram area of Niger Republic.
No less than 2,685.5kg of cannabis were recovered in four different operations conducted in parts of Edo State in the last week.
Also, 53 bags of cannabis weighing 742.5kg were seized on Wednesday, November 2, at a camp in Esioriri, Owan East LGA. Arrested with the seizure were four suspects namely Chukueke Igba, 32; Solomon Peter, 34; Emmanuel Jeremiah, 36 and Happiness Chidi, 37.
Another raid in the house of Joy Zubaru, 45, led to her arrest with 30.5kg of cannabis recovered.
In the same vein, operatives on Thursday, November 3, stormed the Egbeta forest in Ovia North East where they recovered 112 bags of cannabis and eight bags of seeds with a combined weight of 1,598.5kg, while another team evacuated 27 bags of same substance weighing 314kg at Amahor village in Igueben LGA.
In Mubi area of Adamawa State, operatives intercepted a Toyota Corolla car transporting 9,600 pills of tramadol on Tuesday, November 1.
A follow-up operation later led to the arrest of the owner of the consignment, Mamuda Ramadan, (a.k.a Muller), while another suspect, Alhassan Muhammed, was arrested on Sunday, October 30 along Abuja-Kaduna express road, with 136,000 pills of tramadol concealed inside his car’s spare tyre.
The Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), who commended the officers and men of the MMIA, Edo, Katsina, Adamawa, and Kaduna Commands of the Agency for the successful operations in the past week, urged them and their counterparts across the country not to rest on their oars until all drug syndicates operating in Nigeria are completely dismantled and the last gramme of illicit substance taken out of the streets.
