No less than 14,481,519 pills of Tramadol and bottles of codeine syrup worth over N13 billion in street value have been recovered by operatives of the National Drug Enforcement Agency in three major busts of drug cartels operating in Amuwo Odofin, Idumota and the SAHCO shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos.
The Director of Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, made this known in a statement on Sunday.
Babafemi said the three intelligence-led operations began with the raid of House 8/10, Hon. Wahuha Avenue, Divine Estate, Ago Palace area of Amuwo Odofin on October 29, 2023, where 490,000 pills of tramadol and 81,519 bottles of codeine syrup measuring 4,510,000mls were recovered.
In a similar operation on October 31, 2023, NDLEA operatives swooped on a secret warehouse operated by a billionaire Idumota trader, Nwaoha Anayo, located at Onitire, Aguda area of Surulere, where 12,700,000 pills of tramadol were recovered.
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In the same vein, at least six members of a syndicate using their official cover to facilitate the smuggling of illicit drugs through the Skyway Aviation Handling Company warehouse at the Lagos airport into the country have been arrested and 1,210,000 pills of tramadol seized from them in a painstaking operation that lasted for weeks.
The six suspects already in NDLEA custody include are Oladele Sanya-Olu, Lawal Itunu Temitope, Sanamo Alla Daniel, Udeh Felix Monday, Musa Mutalib and Unege Evans Icibor, while three other suspects: Sarki Mubarak Salami, Abdullahi Aliyu (aka Aboki) and Monday Anwal, are now on the run and wanted by the NDLEA.
At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, NDLEA operatives on October 29, 2023 intercepted yet another businessman, 50-year-old Nwokolo Ifeanyi Anthony, during the outward clearance of Air France flight AF 878 to Amsterdam, Netherlands via Paris, France at the boarding gate and was body scanned.
The result turned out to be positive for illicit drug ingestion.
The suspect, who travelled from Lagos to board the flight, was subsequently kept under observation for some daysm during which he excreted a total of 86 pellets of heroin weighing 1.330kilograms.
Similarly, NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation attached to courier firms on October 30, 2023 intercepted 22 parcels of cocaine concealed in the walls of a carton containing sewn local fabrics, popularly called Aso Oke, heading to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
