NDLEA operatives have seized over 24, 311 kilograms of heroin, codeine, as well as Arizona and Colorado variants of cannabis in fresh drug busts at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, and the Tincan port in Lagos, barely a week after intercepting N6 billion worth of Amphetamine, popularly known as jihadists’ drug, at the Apapa port in Lagos.
A statement issued by the Director, Media and Advocacy Femi Babafemi today, Sunday says the first seizure took place at the MMIA’s SAHCO export yard on Friday, September 3rd, 2021, when two consignments comprising 10.350kg heroin and 25.2kg cannabis from South Africa were apprehended. Between Saturday, September 4th, and Monday, September 6th, four suspects were apprehended in various parts of Lagos, including Mrs. Bello Kafayat Ayo, who was arrested on Shino Street, Palm groove area of the state.
Following intelligence received from foreign partners about the cargo since May 2021, narcotic officers intercepted a 40ft container loaded with 22,590 kilograms of Barcadin Codeine syrup at the Tincan seaport in Apapa on Monday 6th September. 4,020.03kg of painkiller tablets and 47 cartons of insulated hot pots designed to conceal the illicit substances were also discovered in the shipment, both of which were imported from India.
Similarly, a shipment of Colorado weighing 17.5kg and hidden within a Grand Caravan Dodge automobile sent in a 40ft container from Montreal, Canada, was intercepted and seized at the Tincan port on Friday, September 10th.
Meanwhile, Miss Bee Okoro, a 20-year-old graduate, has been arrested in Abuja for manufacturing and peddling drugged candies and biscuits. Idewo Raimi, a 27-year-old dispatch rider who conducts door-to-door delivery for her, was also arrested.
The defendants who confessed to being in the drug business for over a year were detained at Garki Area 11 on Friday, September 10th, with a variety of their drugged products and 400 grams of Loud and Arizona.
In Edo state, a total of 1,425.2 kilograms of compressed blocks of cannabis sativa were seized in a raid on Aviosi outskirt, close to Uzebba, Owan west LGA, on Monday 6th Sept, while on the same day one Yahaya Mamman was nabbed along Zaria-Danja road, Kaduna with 10.3kg Tramadol and 60.5kg Exol-6. The previous day, Thursday 5th Sept, one ThankGod Danladi was arrested at Tudun Wada area of Jalingo, the Taraba state capital with 44.2kg of cannabis.
In the same vein, NDLEA agents in Kwara state apprehended Yusuf Sherifat, 36, on Tuesday, September 7th, after she recently finished a jail sentence following her conviction by a Federal High Court in Ilorin for dealing in 22 grams of crack cocaine. Her most recent arrest along Specialist Hospital Road, Alagbado, Ilorin, was made in response to information that she had restarted the sale of crack cocaine in the Ilorin city.
She established a new method of delivering narcotics along the road to known consumers who contact her via phone calls this time.
In Gombe state, raids across the state between Wednesday 1st Sept and Friday 10th Sept led to the arrest of at least nine drug dealers from who assorted illicit drugs weighing over 150kg were recovered. One of such was the interception of a DAF truck loaded with 128kg of psychotropic substances coming from Onitsha, Anambra state along Gombe-Yola road.
In his reaction to the latest drug busts at the Lagos airport, Tincan seaport and across the FCT, Edo, Kaduna, Taraba, Kwara and Gombe states, Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), commended the commanders, officers and men of the commands for their resilience and bravery. He said the series of arrests and seizures across the country further affirm NDLEA’s zero tolerance for production, trafficking and abuse of any illicit substance, warning that drug dealers who are yet to have a change of heart must be ready to contend with the new NDLEA.
