NDLEA Agents Confiscate Cocaine Shipment Bound For Spain

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) prevented 1.2 kilogrammes of cocaine from being smuggled into Spain via Lagos’ Murtala Mohammed International Airport.
According to Femi Babafemi, the anti-narcotics agency’s spokesman, the success was recorded when a 50-year-old businessman from Spain, Francis Akajiobi, was apprehended by operatives at the departure hall of Terminal 2 of the airport after parcels of cocaine weighing 1.20 kilogrammes were discovered in his pair of sandals while attempting to board a Royal Air Maroc flight to Madrid, Spain.
Babafemi claimed the two parcels of cocaine were hidden in the soles of a pair of black sandals Akajiobi was wearing to board his flight when NDLEA operatives apprehended him last Thursday. During his preliminary interrogation, he claimed the consignment was delivered to him at a pub in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, and that he was to deliver it to his friend and neighbour in Spain for a fee of €5,000 upon successful delivery to the recipient.
In other raids this week, Makinde Lekan was arrested in connection with the seizure of 99 parcels of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 51.6 kilogrammes that arrived at the Lagos airport’s SAHCO Imports shed on a Turkish Airlines flight from Canada via Istanbul.
One of the kingpins, Chukwuemaka Obodozie, has been arrested by agents from the agency’s Special Operations Unit who are targeting syndicates that specialise in shipping large consignments of opioids into neighbouring countries, from which they attempt to smuggle them into Nigeria in smaller quantities via transport companies.
Obodozie was apprehended in the early hours of Sunday, July 21st, at the Cele bus stop along the Oshodi-Apapa express road in Lagos, with 100,000 tramadol 225mg tablets loaded in two bags shortly after arriving from Ghana via one of the transport companies operating on the Lagos-Ghana route. The victory came after an intelligence-led operation that included five months of surveillance around the accused.
On Friday, July 26th, NDLEA operatives raided the Owena forest in the Oriade local government area of Osun State, destroying 31,250 kilogrammes of cannabis on 12.5 hectares of farmland, while recovering 84 kilogrammes of processed cannabis sativa and a single barrel Dane gun.
Peter Osuya, 51; Zebron Ode, 46; Dogo Matthew, 35; Isaac Terna; Joseph Lawrence, 27; Ugochukwu Victory, 24; Olamilekan Abolarin, 26; Dele Ayibo, 44; Ojo Moses, 21; Nini Ayila, 27; Msughve Clement, 23; Chuks Ogeneku, 40; Dada Aribo, 20; Uche Endurance, 30; Patrick Agba, 21; Osakwe Kennedy, 45; and Ojo Babatunde, 29.
In Kaduna state, NDLEA operatives on stop and search patrol along Kaduna-Zaria highway intercepted a 32-year-old lady, Ubaida Aliyu, in possession of 573 rounds of 7.60 live ammunition, which she claimed she was attempting to deliver to bandits in Sokoto, while a suspect, Godwin Udochukwu, 35, was arrested in connection with the seizure of 25,000 ampoules of Pentazocine injection by NDLEA operatives on patrol along Kaduna-Zaria highway, another suspect
Abioye Adeniyi, 39, and Rafiu Lekan, 41, were arrested with 55 jumbo wraps of Ghana. Loud by NDLEA operatives at Oloko along Badagry-Seme road, Lagos last Friday, July 26th, while Samson Egwutouhi, 30, was apprehended the same day by officers on patrol along Okene-Lokoja-Abuja motorway with 20 blocks of compressed cannabis sativa weighing 10.5 kilogrammes. Suleiman Yahaya, 50, and Ibrahim Bello (a.k.a Special), 35, were arrested last Thursday along the Maiduguri bye-pass in Bauchi town with 315 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 204.75 kilogrammes.
Babafemi stated that with the same zeal, the agency’s commands and formations across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres, workplaces, and communities, among other places, over the last week.
Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd), the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, praised the officers and men of the Special Operations Unit, MMIA, Osun, Bauchi, Kogi, Seme, and Kaduna commands for the arrests and seizures, as well as their pulverising onslaught against drug cartels across the country.
He also praised their ability to balance drug supply reduction efforts with drug demand reduction activities, while urging them not to get complacent.