By Kamsi Anayo, Awka
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has made series of high-profile seizures and arrests in recent weeks.
Operations spanning Lagos, Onne, and Bauchi have resulted in the interception of over N7 billion worth of opioids, the arrest of two businessmen, and a Canada-based nurse for attempting to smuggle cocaine and cannabis into the country.
Femi Babafemi, NDLEA Spokesperson revealed that on Oct. 11, officers at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos arrested two businessmen, Ihejirika Okechukwu and Iwuagwu Ikedi, for attempting to smuggle cocaine pellets into the country.
Ihejirika, a frequent visitor to Thailand, was apprehended while boarding an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Thailand via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
A body scan revealed he had ingested illicit drugs, which were later identified as cocaine.
Under observation, he excreted five large wraps of cocaine, weighing a total of 400 grams. He confessed to being paid for delivering the drug consignment to Thailand.
Iwuagwu Ikedi, a 26-year-old businessman returning from Brazil, was also apprehended on Oct. 14.
A body scan revealed he had also ingested illicit drugs. He subsequently excreted a pellet of cocaine weighing 22 grams.
Iwuagwu admitted to ingesting 30 wraps of cocaine in Brazil and disposing of 29 pellets in Addis Ababa. He was to be paid N2.5 million for smuggling the remaining cocaine.
On Oct. 4, NDLEA officers apprehended Usman Olami, a Nigerian Canadian nurse returning from Toronto, Canada.
A search of her luggage uncovered 70 parcels of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, weighing 35.7 kilogrammes.
Olami claimed she was carrying the drugs for her boyfriend who instructed her to bring the large consignment of the highly sought-after synthetic cannabis.
The agency’s success extends beyond air travel. At the Apapa seaport in Lagos, NDLEA operatives, working jointly with Customs Service and other security agencies, intercepted two containers containing a total of 162,351 bottles of codeine-based syrup.
Simultaneously, at the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, a watch-listed container from India was discovered to contain a staggering N7.2 million pills of Royal 225mg Tapentadol and Carisoprodol.
The street value of these seized drugs is estimated at N3.6 million. Within the same container, operatives also recovered 780 cartons of chlorphenamine, containing 15.6 million pills of the opioid.
Further investigations into two additional watch-listed containers at the Onne port led to the discovery of 337,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup, valued at approximately N2.4 billion. The combined value of the seized opioids at both seaports totals over N7.1 billion.
Beyond Lagos and the seaports, NDLEA operatives have been active across Nigeria. In Bauchi state, a suspect named Sunday Ogenyi was arrested along the Bauchi-Jos road with 76,600 pills of tramadol concealed in his vehicle.
In Ondo state, three suspects were apprehended with 672 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa, while a raid on Illushi forest in Edo state resulted in the destruction of 10,590.36 kilogrammes of cannabis spread across 4.236144 hectares of farmland.
NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd) expressed his commendation for the officers and men of the MMIA, PHPC, Apapa, Lagos, Bauchi, Ondo, and Edo commands for their tireless efforts in disrupting drug trafficking networks.
