In Nationwide Raids, NDLEA Busts Cocaine Syndicates, Recovers Drugs Worth Billions Of Naira

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has recovered multi-billion-naira worth of cocaine concealed in heavy duty automobile pivot shafts, as well as Ghanaian fabric, Kente, among others.

The anti-narcotics agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, while revealing that the operation was intelligence-led, noted that 2.32 kilogrammes of cocaine concealed in Ghanaian traditional kente materials going to the United Kingdom were intercepted at a courier firm in Lagos last Monday, and 10.494 kilogrammes of the same class A drug buried in heavy duty pivot shafts heading to the United States were recovered at the same logistics company after the

Babafemi also stated that five other consignments bound for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada were intercepted at a courier firm in Lagos last Friday. The intercepted consignments included 517 grammes of cocaine in clothing materials, various quantities of pentazocine injection, promethazine injection, and cocodamol pills bound for the United Kingdom, and 297 tramadol 225mg pills bound for Canada.

He stated that at a different logistics company in Lagos, NDLEA agents discovered 21 parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 10 kilogrammes and destined for delivery in Abuja.

According to Babafemi, in another intelligence-led operation, NDLEA operatives arrested Obiora Agudosi, a member of a cocaine trafficking network, on Wednesday at Alafia Orile in Lagos’ Amuwo Odofin area while attempting to transport 9 kilogrammes of cocaine to Onitsha, Anambra state.

He also stated that two members of another cocaine syndicate based in Nnewi and Oba town, Anambra state, were apprehended last Thursday in a follow-up operation following the seizure of their consignments on a GUO transport company bus in Benin, Edo state, the same day.

He stated that while the bus driver, Harrison Mbachu, 44, was arrested at Benin tollgate with a total of 2.865 kilogrammes cocaine, Izuchkwu Arinze, 40, was apprehended at Nnewi town while attempting to collect his own consignment of 1.748 kilogrammes cocaine and 514 grammes sodium bicarbonate, and Ameachi Okoro, 39, was apprehended while attempting to pick his own 1.117 kilogrammes cocaine at Oba town.

Babafemi disclosed that NDLEA operatives at Tincan seaport in Lagos last Wednesday.
intercepted 532 parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 265.25 kilogrammes, in a black Toyota Sienna bus, one of three vehicles in a container marked MSMU 6029570 bound for Montreal, Canada.

He stated that the seizure was made during a 100% joint examination with Customs Service officers and other stakeholders, and that the following day, Thursday, the operatives recorded another seizure of 75 parcels of the same substance weighing 37.5 kilogrammes in a container labelled FSCU-9274613 that arrived from Canada.

Last Thursday, NDLEA agents in Adamawa state arrested 49-year-old Joseph Peter with 425 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 291.2 kilogrammes in his Toyota Camry marked Lagos KSF 381 HM, with the assistance of Operation Farauta Sector 3, Mayo Belwa. He claimed he was transporting the consignment from Edo State to Yola, Adamawa.

While two suspects, Adekunle Sunday Adebayo, 50, and Yahaya Mamuda, 35, were arrested in Kano’s Gadar Tamburawa area last Tuesday with 29.5kg cannabis, NDLEA agents in Lagos recovered 1,169 kilogrammes of the same psychoactive substance from a bus on Orchid Road in Ajah last Sunday.

Last Friday, NDLEA officers supported by Nigerian Army men destroyed 1,230 kilogrammes of cannabis on three hectares of farmland in Ikeje forest, Edimogo village, Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state, while the owner, Danjuma Maji, 40, was arrested.

He stated that the agency’s commands and formations throughout the country have continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres, workplaces, and communities, among other places, in the past I.

Meanwhile, the Chairman/CEO of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd), has urged them and their compatriots across the country to maintain their current balanced approach to drug supply and demand reduction efforts.