Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted cocaine consignments concealed in lipsticks and property title documents going to the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia respectively.
The illicit drug consignments were recovered from cargos being prepared for shipment at a courier company in Lagos on Thursday, July 3, by NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) attached to the logistics firm.
The NDLEA Director, Media & Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this on Sunday, July 6, said a total of 420 grammes of cocaine factory-fitted in 84 pieces of lipsticks heading to the UK were seized, while 280 grammes of the same Class A drug were uncovered in a property title document (Certificate of Occupancy) being sent to Saudi Arabia.
Also, a notorious drug kingpin, Ajetsibo Emami, popularly known as ‘Warri Kinsman,’ was on Saturday, June 28, arrested in Ikeja Lagos after NDLEA operatives dismantled his drug trafficking network in a three-day operation, leading to the arrest of three other suspects.
Recovered from Emami’s network were 24 jumbo bags containing 681 pouches of Canadian Loud and a strain of cannabis weighing 414.2 kilogrammes.
The bust of Emami’s drug ring followed credible intelligence on his attempt to move the shipment to Lekki area of Lagos, from where it would be distributed to other parts of the state and across the country.
A businessman, Ajah Johnson Uchenna, and his wife, Rosemary Uchenna, along with their two daughters – Stella Uchenna and Ngozi Uchenna – as well as their family friend, Okoro Elijah, have been taken into custody after investigation revealed they run a major illicit drug distribution network in Lagos.
Thenewsbearer learnt that the couple was first arrested on Friday, June 13, by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) at Ojo area of the state and transferred to NDLEA along with 277.5kg skunk.
While they were still being investigated in custody, credible intelligence revealed that the family business was going on in his house.
This led to a raid of their home and a store where 231kg of same substance was recovered on Tuesday, July 1.
Three persons arrested during the raid included the two daughters and family friend who were running the family business in the absence of the couple.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos on Wednesday, July 2, intercepted a frequent flyer, Aburemi Hyacinth, who specialised in conveying goods for customers from Nigeria to Italy and vice versa.
He was found to have hidden 7,660 pills of Tramadol (225mg and 200mg) inside food items packed among other goods he was conveying to Italy.
During investigation, he claimed he was to be paid the sum of 800 euros upon successful delivery of the drug consignment in Italy.
In another operation at the Lagos airport, a total of 52 pieces of the travellers cheques concealed in children books, worth 17,700,000 Australian dollars, going to Malaysia through Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines flight, were on Friday, July 4, intercepted by NDLEA operatives at the export shed of the airport, while a freight agent, Bolarinwa Saheed, was arrested.
The travellers cheques, suspected to be counterfeit, and the suspect would be transferred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further investigation, Babafemi said.
While NDLEA officers at Seme border, Badagry, recovered 718 big balls of skunk weighing 359kg from a store in Baba Pupa area of the border community on Saturday, July 5, operatives on patrol along Okene-Lokoja highway intercepted 10,000 pills of Tramadol (225mg) and Co-codamol, as well as 1.050kg Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis, leading to the arrest of owners of the way billed drug consignments.
The owners – Chinedu Odo, Samuel Ogbonna and Kingsley Ugaji – were arrested at Jabi park in Abuja during follow up operations.
In Osun State, two suspects – Agunbiade Folusho, 40, and Suleiman Dasola, 28 – were arrested at Ajegunle area of Osogbo on Thursday, July 3, with 13,901 pills and ampoules of different opioids recovered from them, while another suspect Adebayo Adewale, 50, was nabbed at
a patent medicine shop at Arubidi Street, Ile-Ife, with 48,205 pills of opioids.
A raid of a vulcanizer workshop at Akindeko junction, Alekuwodo area of Osogbo on Tuesday, July 1, led to the arrest of three suspects – Wasiu Ajadi, 45; Babatunde Jamiu Ojo, 35; and Yusuf Sarafadeen, 39, – with 1,250 ampoules of Pentazocine injection, 850 pills of Tramadol and three bottles of codeine-based syrup.
Not less than 24,175 kilogrammes of skunk were destroyed on 9.67 hectares of cannabis farmland at Ikaka, Oke-Ila forest, Osun State when NDLEA operatives raided the area on Thursday, July 3.
Seven suspects who gave their names as Bunmi Adedapo, 41; Adebisi Sodiq, 26; Babatunde Gani, 22; John Sunday, 30; Israel Odabe, 29; Solomon Odabe, 21, and Prosper Odabe, 23, were arrested.
In Borno State, on Thursday, July 3, 167kg of skunk was recovered at Gamboru-Ngala, while a total of 452kg of same psychoactive substance was seized at Gadar Tamburawa along Zaria-Kano road.
Two suspects, Nasuru Saleh and Mustapha Muhammad, were arrested in connection with the seizure.
While NDLEA operatives on patrol along Abuja-Kaduna expressway recovered 11,000 pills of Tramadol 225mg from Sule Ibrahim Sadiq, aged 30, on Thursday, July 3, their counterparts in Sokoto arrested 62-year-old Joseph Onungene in connection with the seizure of 4,800 pills of Tramadol (225mg).
In Kebbi State, operatives raided Bakin Kasuwa Yauri base where they seized 312kg skunk and 10,000 tablets of Diazepam. The duo of Chigbo Okolo, aged 52, and Ishaku Musa, 28 years old, were on Saturday, July 5, arrested with 49,930 capsules of Tramadol at Mallum, Ardo- Kola local council area of Taraba State.
In Edo State, NDLEA operatives raided the Ewere forest in Owan West LGA where they arrested a wanted suspect, Alaba Monday, aged 49, in one of his cannabis farms with 115kg of processed skunk, while three other suspects: Shamsu Abdullahi; Peter Egboko; and Justin John were nabbed in another farm measuring 2.050201 hectares.
A 78-year-old suspect, Mike Abeng, was arrested with 14.49kg skunk and Tramadol during a raid by NDLEA operatives at Ofudua, Obubra LGA, Cross River State. Others nabbed with different quantities of illicit substances during the operation include: Oyom Akam, 50; Sylvester Odem, 40; and Moses Ayo, 50, at Ovonum, Obubra LGA.
The War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, social advocacy activities by NDLEA Commands equally continued across the country in the past week. Some of them include: WADA sensitization lecture delivered to students and staff of Queen of Angel Secondary School, Mgbidi, Awgu, Enugu state; Divine Purpose College, Eyita, Ikorodu, Lagos; Al-Furqan College, Kankia, Katsina and residents of Gomari Binta Suga community, Maiduguri, Borno state, among others.
While commending the officers and men of DOGI, MMIA, Lagos, Seme, Kogi, Osun, Borno, Kano, Edo, Kaduna, Cross River, Kebbi and Taraba Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for ensuring a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
