Three sexagenarian grandfathers and a Nigerien top the list of suspects arrested in connection with the seizure of over 52.252 kilograms of Cocaine, Methamphetamine and Skunk as well as 32,590 pills of opioids in Lagos, Kwara, Plateau and Sokoto States and two courier companies by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in the past week.
The Director of Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, made this known on Sunday in a statement.
In the statement, Babafemi said suspect, Onyebi Benjamin Chimaobi, who frequents Cameroon, Ethiopia, Uganda and has been on NDLEA’s watchlist was on February 18 arrested at Victory Estate, Iba, Ojo area of Lagos in connection with the seizure of 19.70kgs cocaine abandoned on an Ethiopian Airline flight that arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on February 9.
Chimaobi had travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to pick 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 unraveled and traced to Victory Estate, Iba, where he was arrested.
In the same vein, operatives on February 23 intercepted an intending passenger on Turkish Airline flight to Torino via Milan, Italy at the Departure Hall of the Lagos airport, Obazee Timothy Eguagie, with various quantities of opioids.
The consignment, consisting of: 22,840 tablets of Tramadol 225mg weighing 10.60kg; 1000 tablets of Tramadol 200mg, with a gross weight of 600grams; 2,300 capsules of Tramadol 100mg, weighing 800grams; and 60 tablets of Rohypnol 1mg, weighing 19 grams, were concealed inside cloths and wrapped with black tapes.
The following day, NDLEA operatives attached to the NAHCO import shed of the airport intercepted eight cartons of shoes coming from Los Angeles, United States of America.
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 20.10 kilograms.
A 63-year-old grandfather, Balogun Akinlabi Abideen, hired as freight agent to clear the illicit consignment, has already been arrested.
Two other sexagenarians arrested in connection with drug trafficking included Butven Siman, 62, who was nabbed with 5.5kg skunk on February 17 at Timbol village, Langtang South Local Governor Area of Plateau State, as well as 65-year-old Musa Shuaib, who was arrested with a kilogram of cannabis on February 23 in Adewole area of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
At two major courier companies in Lagos, a total of 4.292 kilograms of psychoactive drugs, including Methamphetamine, Tramadol, Lexaton and Swindon, concealed in walls of cartons, picture frames, bathing soap packs and bedsheets were recovered from parcels going to the 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, NDLEA operatives at the Illela land border on February 21 intercepted Bashar Abdu of Kwanni, who is from Niger Republic, with 1.460kgs of skunk wrapped round his private part, while in Kaduna, a suspect, Mohammed Garba, aka Alfazazi, was arrested with 6,390 tablets of Tramadol 225mg, weighing 3.4kg on February 23, along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway.
While commending the officers and men of the MMIA, DOGI, Plateau, Sokoto, Kaduna and Kwara States Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), noted that their efforts and those of their compatriots across the country have in no small measure reduced access to and availability of illicit substances in Nigerian communities.
Marwa charged them to remain vigilant at all times.
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