Three sexagenarian grandfathers and a Nigerien top the list of suspects arrested in connection with the seizure of over 52.252Kg of cocaine, methamphetamine, and skunk as well as 32,590 pills of opioids in Lagos, Kwara, Plateau, Sokoto and two courier companies by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in the last one week.
The agency’s Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists on Sunday.
According to the agency, the first suspect, Onyebi Chimaobi, who frequents Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Uganda and had been on NDLEA’s watchlist was on Saturday, February 18 arrested at Victory Estate, Iba, Ojo area of Lagos in connection with the seizure of 19.70Kg cocaine abandoned in an Ethiopian airline flight that arrived Lagos airport on Thursday, February 9.
“Chimaobi had travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to pick up the consignment, which he claimed was handed over to him in a black backpack bag on the plane in Addis Ababa but failed to disembark with it on arrival in Lagos.
“While the agency continues to investigate the flight crew members, relevant intelligence and investigative tools were deployed to identify the passenger who brought the consignment to Nigeria as a result of which Chimaobi was eventually unravelled and traced to Victory Estate, Iba where he was arrested,” the statement read.
Babafemi noted that the two other sexagenarians arrested in connection with drug trafficking include Butven Siman, 62, who was nabbed with 5.5Kg skunk on Friday, February 17 at Timbol village, Langtang South Local Government Area of Plateau State, as well as 65-year-old Musa Shuaib who was arrested with a kilogramme of cannabis on Thursday, February 23 in Adewole area of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
Also, NDLEA operatives intercepted an intending passenger on a Turkish Airline flight to Torino via Milan, Italy, Obazee Eguagie, at the departure hall of the Lagos airport with various quantities of opioids.
The consignment consisting a total of 22, 840 tablets of Tramadol 225mg weighing 10.60 kg; 1,000 tablets of Tramadol 200mg with a gross weight of 600 grams; 2,300 capsules of Tramadol 100mg, weighing 800 grams and 60 tablets of Rohypnol 1mg, weighing 19 grams were concealed inside cloths and wrapped with black tapes.
Operatives attached to the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc’s import shed of the airport also intercepted eight cartons of shoes coming from Los Angeles, United States of America.
Babafemi added, “A diligent examination of the cargo however showed that the shoes were used to conceal a total of 37 parcels of Loud variant of Cannabis with a gross weight of 20.10Kg. A 63-year-old grandfather, Balogun Abideen, hired as a freight agent to clear the illicit consignment has already been arrested.
“At two major courier companies in Lagos, a total of 4.292Kg of psychoactive drugs including Methamphetamine, Tramadol, Lexaton, and Swindon concealed in walls of cartons, picture frames, bathing soap packs and bed sheets were recovered from parcels going to United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia by officers of the NDLEA Directorate of Operations and General Investigation attached to the logistics firms.
“In Sokoto state, operatives at the Illela land border intercepted a Nigerien, Bashar Abdu of Kwanni, Niger Republic with 1.460Kg of skunk wrapped around his private part, while in Kaduna, a suspect, Mohammed Garba a.k.a Alfazazi, was arrested with 6,390 tablets of Tramadol 225mg, weighing 3.4kgs along Abuja-Kaduna express road.”
