The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has intercepted 1,630,000 pills of tramadol concealed in two articulated trucks heading to Kano from Lagos as part of a crackdown on a transnational drug trafficking syndicate.
The anti-narcotics agency said the operation also led to the arrest of an 80-year-old suspected drug dealer and several other suspects in coordinated raids across different states.
According to the NDLEA, the seizures followed an earlier interception of 558,900 tramadol pills on June 21 from another truck linked to the same trafficking network operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria corridor.
In a statement, the agency disclosed that the first truck was intercepted on July 2 along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway after intelligence operatives tracked it while heading to Kano.
It said officers recovered 853,000 pills of tramadol 250mg concealed in a fabricated compartment beneath the cargo floor and arrested the driver, 22-year-old Jabir Kabiru.
Two days later, operatives intercepted another truck on the same route and recovered 777,000 pills of tramadol hidden in a similar compartment. The driver, Muhammed Nuhu, 22, was arrested.
The agency also announced the interception of two consignments of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 4.70 kilograms, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja.
According to the statement, the consignments arrived from Canada aboard British Airways and Ethiopian Airlines flights on June 24 and July 3 in cartons labelled “Odugwu.”
Three suspects identified as Ali Rotimi Samson, Orimolade Oluwagbenga and Edeh Onyeamachi Stanislus were initially arrested before operatives apprehended the alleged owner of the consignments, 44-year-old businesswoman Chioma Nneka Mokeme, on July 7 with the support of the Nigeria Police Area C Command, Surulere.
The NDLEA said Mokeme confessed during interrogation that she was introduced to the illicit drug business by a Canada-based associate identified as Agbons Collins.
In Rivers State, operatives arrested an 80-year-old suspect, Chika Ugwoji, at Ahoada on July 14 after recovering 800 grams of skunk from him.
In another operation in Edo State, the agency arrested a couple, Christian Chukwuka, 32, and Nwanneka Christian, 33, during a raid on their alleged drug warehouse along Sapele Road, Benin City.
The raid led to the seizure of 22 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5 kilograms as well as compressed blocks of Canadian Loud with a gross weight of 192.67 kilograms.
Similarly, a 38-year-old Chadian woman, Hajara Abdullahi, and her Nigerian accomplice, Abdulkarim Jidda, 44, were arrested in Apapa, Lagos, after investigators linked them to a consignment of 50,000 tramadol 225mg pills intercepted in Kogi State on July 12.
The agency said intelligence gathered during the investigation led operatives to the suspects in Lagos.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended officers of the MMIA, Lagos, Rivers, Edo and Kogi commands for the successful operations.
Marwa also praised personnel involved in the agency’s War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitisation campaign in schools across Katsina, Enugu, Lagos, Rivers, Ekiti and Kano states, urging officers to remain committed to the fight against illicit drugs.
