The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has declared wanted a couple, Kazeem Omogoriola Owoalade, alias Abdul Qassim Adisa Balogun, and Rashidat Ayinke Owoalade, alias Bolarinwa Rashidat Ayinke, over the running of a cocaine cartel.
The couple, based in India, were declared wanted after operatives of the NDLEA arrested four members of the cartel.
A statement on Sunday by the Director of Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, said apart from the arrest of the four members of the cartel, operatives also recovered a Sports Utility Vehicle said to belong to the couple and traced two houses to them.
According to Babafemi, the houses have been sealed and a move made for their forfeiture to the Federal Government.
Two members of the syndicate: Imran Taofeek Olalekan and Ishola Isiaka Olalekan, were arrested on April 3, 2024 following their bid to export 3.40kg cocaine on a Qatar Airlines flight going to Oman through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos State.
While Imran was the courier conveying the drug consignment to Oman, Ishola recruited him for the head of the cartel, which investigation has now revealed to be Alhaji Owoalade, whose India residence permit bears Abdul Qassim Adisa Balogun, based in India.
Efforts to dismantle his network in Nigeria paid off after five weeks of surveillance and follow up operations when another member of the syndicate, Hamed Abimbola Saheed, who works directly with the baron, was arrested on May 14, 2024 at Abule Egba area of Lagos.
It was indeed Saheed who lodged Imran in a hotel a day before his aborted trip to Oman and equally dropped him and Ishola at the Lagos airport the day they were arrested.
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During a search of Saheed’s house, NDLEA operatives recovered some phenacetine, a cutting agent for Cocaine, weighing 900 grams.
He confessed that the recovered substance was what was left of the consignment Imran was taking to Oman the day he was arrested.
His arrest led to a follow up operation at the home of the Owoalade couple at 20, Eyiaro Street, Ogudu Orioke, Lagos, where another suspect was arrested and a new model Toyota RAV4 SUV marked FKJ-773 JJ belonging to Rashidat and additional 400 grams of Cocaine recovered in addition to already prepared suitcases to be used for illicit drug concealment, digital weighing scales and other paraphernalia.
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