The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intensified its crackdown on drug trafficking networks, intercepting 1.63 million pills of tramadol concealed in two articulated trucks bound for Kano from Lagos, while arresting an 80-year-old suspected drug dealer, a businesswoman, a Chadian national and several other suspects in coordinated operations across the country.
NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said the seizures were part of sustained intelligence-led operations targeting a transnational drug trafficking syndicate smuggling tramadol from Togo through the Benin Republic into Nigeria.
According to him, the latest interceptions came barely a week after operatives recovered 558,900 tramadol pills hidden in a false-bottom compartment of another truck that entered Nigeria through the same Togo-Benin Republic corridor.
Babafemi disclosed that the first trailer, carrying 853,000 pills of tramadol 250mg concealed beneath its cargo floor, was intercepted along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on July 2 while heading to Kano. The 22-year-old driver, Jabir Kabiru, was arrested.
He said operatives struck again on July 4, tracking and intercepting a second trailer on the same route. A further 777,000 tramadol pills hidden in a specially fabricated compartment beneath the truck were recovered, leading to the arrest of another 22-year-old driver, Muhammed Nuhu.
Investigations, according to Babafemi, revealed that the three trucks intercepted on June 21, July 2 and July 4, along with their illicit consignments, belonged to the same transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria corridor.
In a separate operation at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, NDLEA officers intercepted two consignments of Canadian Loud, a potent synthetic strain of cannabis, weighing 4.70 kilograms.
Babafemi said the illicit consignments arrived from Canada aboard British Airways and Ethiopian Airlines flights in cartons boldly labelled “Odugwu.”
The investigation led to the arrest of two cargo agents, Ali Rotimi Samson and Orimolade Oluwagbenga, before another suspect, Edeh Onyeamachi Stanislus, was apprehended while attempting to collect the consignments from a logistics company.
Further investigations culminated in the arrest of the alleged owner of the shipments, 44-year-old businesswoman Chioma Nneka Mokeme, in Surulere, Lagos, on July 7 in collaboration with the Nigeria Police Area C Command.
Babafemi said the suspect, who claimed to operate a printing business, told investigators that a friend based in Canada, identified as Agbons Collins, introduced her to the illicit trade.Africans & Diaspora
“In Rivers State, NDLEA operatives arrested 80-year-old Chika Ugwoji at Ahoada after he was allegedly found in possession of 800 grams of skunk.
The agency also dismantled an alleged drug warehouse in Benin City, Edo State, where a couple, Christian Chukwuka, 32, and Nwanneka Christian, 33, were arrested.
Recovered from the warehouse were 22 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5 kilograms and compressed blocks of Canadian Loud weighing 192.67 kilograms.
In another intelligence-led operation, Babafemi said a consignment of 50,000 tramadol pills intercepted in Kogi State was traced to a Chadian woman, Hajara Abdullahi, 38, and her Nigerian accomplice, Abdulkarim Jidda, 44, who were subsequently arrested in the Apapa area of Lagos.
Beyond enforcement operations, Babafemi said the agency sustained its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign through sensitisation programmes in schools across Katsina, Enugu, Lagos, Rivers, Ekiti and Kano states as part of efforts to reduce drug abuse through public education.
Commending officers involved in the successful operations, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), praised personnel of the MMIA, Lagos, Rivers, Edo and Kogi Commands for their commitment to the agency’s anti-drug campaign.
He urged officers nationwide to remain vigilant and sustain the momentum in the fight against illicit drug trafficking and abuse across the country.
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