The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced that it has found cocaine worth billions of naira hidden in heavy-duty car pivot shafts and Ghanaian fabric, Kente, at a Lagos courier company.
In a statement released on Sunday, August 11, Femi Babafemi, Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, stated that this recovery was one of several of its kind made by Agency officers as part of a nationwide intelligence-led operation.
According to Babafemi, on Monday, August 5, 2024, 2.32 kilogrammes of cocaine hidden in clothing and destined for the United Kingdom were discovered at a courier business in Lagos.
He said that after the NDLEA sniffer dogs pulled out the car parts carrying the illegal substance, 10.494 kg of the same class A narcotic that were hidden in heavy duty pivot shafts and headed for the US were found at the same logistics company.
In a similar vein, five other shipments bound for the US, UK, and Canada were also stopped at the courier company in Lagos on Friday, August 9, 2024, according to the NDLEA official.
According to him, they contain 517 grammes of cocaine concealed in clothes, as well as various amounts of promethazine, cocodamol, and pentazocine injections that are all headed to the UK and 297 225 mg tramadol pills that are going to Canada.
According to Babafemi, NDLEA agents seized 21 packages containing Loud, a synthetic cannabis strain weighing 10 kg that was imported from the US and intended for delivery to Abuja, from a different logistics business in Lagos.
In a separate intelligence-driven operation, he added, NDLEA agents detained Obiora Joseph Agudosi, a member of a cocaine trafficking network, on Wednesday, August 7, in the Alafia Orile neighbourhood of Lagos. Agudosi was trying to transport nine kilogrammes of cocaine to Onitsha, Anambra state.
He said that on Thursday, August 8, in a follow-up operation, two members of a different cocaine syndicate with headquarters in Nnewi and Oba town, Anambra state, were also taken into custody after their shipments were found in a GUO transport business bus in Benin, Edo state, on the same day.
“While the bus driver, Harrison Mbachu, 44, was arrested at Benin tollgate with a total of 2.865kg cocaine, Izuchkwu Arinze, 40, was picked at Nnewi town while attempting to collect his own consignment of 1.748kg cocaine and 514 grams sodium bicarbonate, with Ameachi Okoro, 39, arrested while trying to pick his own 1.117kg cocaine at Oba town,” he said.
According to Babafemi, on Wednesday, August 7, NDLEA agents at Tincan Seaport Lagos seized 532 packages of Loud, a synthetic cannabis strain weighing 265.25 kg, from a black Toyota Sienna bus. The bus was one of three in a container bearing the tracking number MSMU 6029570 that was being shipped from Montreal, Canada.
He said that the seizure was made during a fully cooperative examination with representatives from the Customs Service and other parties.
The statement reads: “The following day, Thursday 8th August, the operatives recorded yet another seizure of 75 parcels of same substance weighing 37.5kg in a container marked FSCU-9274613, that came from Canada.
“In Adamawa state, NDLEA operatives on Thursday 8th August with the support of men of operation Farauta Sector 3, Mayo Belwa arrested 49-year-old Joseph Peter with 425 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 291.200kg in his Toyota Camry car marked Lagos KSF 381 HM. He claimed he was bringing the consignment from Edo state to deliver in Yola, Adamawa State.
“While two suspects: Adekunle Sunday Adebayo, 50, and Yahaya Mamuda, 35, were arrested at Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano on Tuesday 6th August with 29.5kg cannabis, NDLEA operatives in Lagos recovered 1,169 kilograms of the same psychoactive substance from a bus along Orchid road, Ajah on Sunday 4th August.
“No less than 1,230.00kg cannabis was destroyed on three hectares of farmland at Ikeje forest, Edimogo village, Igalamela/ Odolu LGA, Kogi state on Friday 9th August by NDLEA officers supported by men of the Nigerian Army while the owner, Danjuma Maji, 40, was arrested.
“With the same drive, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization activities in schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week.
“These include: WADA enlightenment lecture for women at Fowewe Sofuwa Islamic Centre, Saki, Oyo state; WADA sensitisation lecture and inauguration of community drug control committee at Nnando community, Anambra state; WADA advocacy visit to the Emir of Ilorin, HRH Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, Kwara state; and WADA sensitisation lecture to members of Ansaru-ud-deen Muslim Society of Nigeria in Ado Ekiti, among others.
“While commending the officers and men of the Special Operations Unit, Tincan, Lagos, Edo, Kano, Kogi, and Adamawa Commands as well as those of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations, DOGI, for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) urged them and their compatriots across the country to continue with their current balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.”
