The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested an automobile spare parts dealer, Ejiofor Nnaemeka Chiwuzie, for attempting to export consignments of heroin and loud, a strain of cannabis, concealed in LED rechargeable lamps and sofa metal legs through the export shed of Lagos International Airport.
According to a statement by the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Mr. Femi Babafemi, Ejiofor was arrested on September 24, 2024, at the Trade Fair complex in the Ojo area of Lagos, where he sells automobile spare parts.
This followed the seizure of his cargo containing auto parts, rechargeable lamps, sofa metal legs, and electronics heading to Liberia.
Concealed inside the LED lamps and sofa legs were 37 parcels of heroin weighing 1.10 kilograms and four blocks of loud with a total weight of 1.20 kg. A swift follow-up operation led to the arrest of two freight agents and Ejiofor, who sent the consignment.
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In the same vein, Babafemi stated that attempts by drug trafficking networks to export consignments of loud, tramadol pills, co-codamol tablets, pentazocine injection, dihydrocodeine, and promethazine tablets through courier companies to the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Thailand, and Oman were foiled by NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI).
While 2.3 kg of loud hidden in a carton was headed to Thailand, 749 grams of tramadol concealed in the soles of locally made footwear were heading to Oman, with 60 ampoules of pentazocine injection bound for the United States.
He said no fewer than 200 co-codamol pills were bound for Australia, while 700 tablets of dihydrocodeine, promethazine, and tramadol, along with 20 ampoules of pentazocine injection hidden in footwear soles, were headed to the UK.
Fifty-eight ampoules of pentazocine injection concealed in female clothes were headed for Canada.
All these seizures, according to the NDLEA spokesman, were made between September 23 and 24 in Lagos.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives on September 25 arrested wanted drug kingpin Ajiboye Damilare Samuel (a.k.a Na God) after 12 months of evading capture.
His warehouse in the Akala, Mushin area of Lagos had been raided on September 4, 2023, where 1,101 kilograms of Ghana Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, were recovered.
Ajiboye was arrested in a bank in Ogun State following coordinated efforts by the NDLEA’s Directorate of Assets and Financial Investigation, which traced and blocked 20 bank accounts linked to him.
Similarly, on September 27, NDLEA operatives in Lagos arrested a wanted community leader, the Sarkin Yamma of Badagry, Alhaji Bashir Mohammed Talba, following the earlier arrest of his two wives, Hauwa and Asma’u, and son, Sadat, with the seizure of 226.2 kg of cannabis at their homes in Badagry on September 18.
In another Lagos operation, NDLEA officers recovered 9.7 kg of cannabis sativa and 50 liters of “monkey tail” (a fermented mix of cannabis and dry gin) from a suspect, Florence Moses, in the Badore area of Ajah, Lekki, on September 24.
In Kogi, three suspects—Owolabi Dele, Ayodele Monday, and Olawale Ojo—were arrested by NDLEA operatives along the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway, transporting 132 sacks of cannabis weighing 2,062.00 kg in a Mercedes container truck from Osun State to Dei Dei in Abuja.
Another suspect, Benedict Simire, was arrested on Ayetoro Road, Kabba, with 33.40 kg of cannabis and a pump-action gun with six cartridges on September 25.
On the same day, NDLEA’s Marine Command intercepted a boat bearing 71 bags of Ghana Loud, weighing 2,982 kg, along Alfa Beach, Lekki.
Two suspects on the boat escaped by diving into the water, but the Nigerian Customs Service’s Western Marine Command assisted the NDLEA in recovering the boat and the drugs.
On September 25, NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers State, intercepted 1,500 cartons of codeine-based cough syrup containing 150,000 bottles during a joint examination of a 40ft container with Nigerian Customs and other security agencies.
In Niger State, NDLEA operatives recovered 6,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection from Chukwudi Nwanoche at the former Minna city gate. In Kano, officers arrested Aminu Danmanya with 15,530 tramadol capsules at a hotel on Katsina Road.
In Plateau State, NDLEA operatives arrested a female suspect, Jummai Luka, on September 27 behind Jehovah Witness Junction, Kabong, Jos North LGA, with 12,000 tramadol pills.
On September 24, in Oyo State, officers apprehended Segun Asogba in Igangan Town with 601 kg of cannabis sativa and a Dane gun.
In Katsina, two ex-convicts, Muhammad Machido and Zakari Ya’u Buhari, were again arrested with illicit substances.
Muhammad was nabbed along the Kano-Katsina highway in Kankia on September 23 with 51,000 opioid pills, while Zakari was caught in Daura with 14 blocks of cannabis weighing 7 kg.
Zakari was previously arrested on February 8, 2024, and sentenced to 15 months in prison with an option of a N15,000 fine, which he paid.
Muhammad had been arrested earlier on December 12, 2022, with 45 kg of cannabis and 2.5 kg of tramadol and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Elsewhere, Benjamin Benjamin Ebei was arrested in Biase LGA, Cross River State, with 38 kg of cannabis recovered from his vehicle.
In Edo State, on September 24, NDLEA operatives raided a house on Okpuje Road, Uzebba, in Owan West LGA, arresting a suspect, Idonuan Ajilo, and seizing 112.5 kg of cannabis from his store.
