•As drug kingpin bags seven years imprisonment
Desperate attempts by the tramadol drug cartel to smuggle into Nigeria over 2.465 million tablets of the pharmaceutical opioid in 225mg and 250mg, weighing 2,356kgs, estimated to worth N1.04 billion at street value through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja Lagos have been foiled by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
This was made known by the Agency’s Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, October 9, 2022.
The seizure of the drug on Friday, October 7 came barely a week after about 13.5 million pills of the same opioid worth over N8.8billion were recovered by NDLEA operatives from one of the mansions of a billionaire drug baron in the highbrow residential estate, Victoria Garden City, Lekki, Lagos State.
According to Babafemi, following credible intelligence, the NDLEA showed interest in the consignment of 52 cartons that came into Nigeria from Karachi, Pakistan with six different airway bills via Ethiopian Airlines flight, comprising of seven cartons of 250mg of a brand called tamral and 45 cartons of 225mg, branded as tramaking.
Soon after its arrival at the Lagos airport, the NDLEA had called for a joint examination of the consignment with other stakeholders, and after its information was confirmed by all, the 52 cartons of the seized substance which were above the recommended threshold for medical use and banned in the country, were moved to the Agency’s facility.
In the same vein, another bid to export through the airport 15 parcels of cannabis and 600 grammes of tramadol 225mg concealed in a sack of crayfish to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was equally thwarted by operatives who seized the consignment and subsequently arrested a freight agent, Osahor Alex Ekwueme, who presented it for export.
Also, weeks after NDLEA operatives intercepted 5.20 kilogrammes of cannabis concealed in kegs of palm oil going to Dubai at the NAHCO export shed of the airport, the brain behind the consignment, Ifeanyi Egbuwaohia, has been arrested in Igando area of Lagos State.
Though Ifeanyi works as a technician at Computer Village, Ikeja, it was discovered that beneath his known business, he was also working with a drug network in Dubai, where he was sending illicit drugs for distribution.
Few hours after his arrest, another consignment of 2.60kg of the same substance sent by him for export to Dubai was also intercepted by operatives at the airport.
Another consignment of 1.30kg of cannabis concealed in reconstructed engine blocks going to Dubai was also seized at the SAHCO export shed, while two persons – Olatunji Kehinde Temiola and Osemojoye Femi Sunday – were arrested in connection with the bid.
In Kaduna State, a female drug dealer, Peace Ayuba, was on Friday, October 7, arrested at Kakau Gonin Gora with 78 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 849.5kg, while operatives in Sokoto State arrested Onyeka Owo, 28, with 443 bottles of codeine based syrup.
Meanwhile, 10 months after his arrest by NDLEA, a notorious drug dealer in Alaba Rago area of Ojo, Lagos, Alhaji Surajo Mohammed, has been convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a Federal High Court in Lagos, presided over by Justice Yellin Dogoro.
Surajo was arrested with 941.15kg cannabis on Monday, December 20, 2021, and arraigned in court in charge number FHC/L/370c/2021.
In his judgment delivered on Thursday, October 6, the judge however gave the convict an option of N7 million fine.
Commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Kaduna, Sokoto and Lagos commands for the feats, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) urged them and their compatriots across the country to remain steadfast, resolute and unrelenting until the last gramme of illicit drugs is taken away from the streets of Nigeria.
