Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have intercepted various quantities of ephedrine, skunk and nitrous oxide, popularly known as laughing gas at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
NDLEA, in a statement issued on Sunday by the NDLEA’s Director of Media & Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed that the drugs were being shipped to South Africa and Kenya by members of Transnational Drug Trafficking Organizations, with some of them promptly arrested and their properties seized.
Babafemi said the Agency, through credible intelligence, on Friday intercepted a notorious drug trafficker, Suleiman Babatunde Oba, who is a member of a cartel distributing cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ephedrine between Nigeria, Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, and Europe.
Suleiman was arrested while attempting to board a Rwanda Air flight to South Africa with two boxes loaded with ephedrine sealed in semovita packs, a substance the agency said is a precursor chemical and active ingredient in the production of methamphetamine, the statement noted.
Items recovered from Suleiman’s house include a white Toyota Venza car with registration number LSR 410 HT, a Mercedes Benz SUV marked LSD 998HP, phones and vital documents needed for further investigation.
Similarly, the Agency said it had seized 25.60kg ephedrine from a trafficker, Arua Emmanuel Onwuka, at the Lagos airport, a seizure that has also been traced to the same cartel whose identified members are currently on the run, noting that an official of the airport, Godwin Shedrack, fingered as a member of the syndicate is also under investigation.
In the same vein, NDLEA announced that its operatives attached to the NAHCO export shed of the airport on Saturday thwarted an attempt by another syndicate to export 10.40kg skunk concealed with scent leaf and pepper, going to Nairobi, Kenya, with a suspect, Ekechukwu Sixtus Ndubuisi, arrested in connection with the seizure.
The agency also frustrated another bid to export a consignment of 180 canisters of laughing gas to South Africa by a freight agent, Oyekola Gbenga Akeem, for a fee of N2 million as its operatives seized the cargo and arrested the suspect.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives on Friday succeeded in arresting a drug kingpin, Ngene Emmanuel Onyedikachi, who recruited the fake couple, Ilonzeh Kingsley Onyebuchi and Ilonzeh Roseline Nonyelum, respectively arrested for ingesting 1.822kg and 1.50kg of Cocaine at the Lagos airport on 1st August while on their way to India.
NDLEA disclosed that the alleged kingpin was picked up at his residence located at 28 Afolabi Brown Street, Akoka, Yaba, after an intensive surveillance that lasted 25 days.
It noted that Onyedikachi confessed during his interview that the two suspects, Ilonzeh Kingsley Onyebuchi and Ilonzeh Roseline Nonyelum were introduced to him by another member of his syndicate, who he claimed he met at Zion Church in Cele area of Lagos. He explained that the drug was sourced from Guinea Conakry.
Meanwhile, NDLEA’s operatives of the Lagos state Command on Monday, 28th August, arrested a suspect, Peter Iwebema, at Ikorodu with 79 and a half bags of cannabis sativa weighing 864.5kg; their counterparts at Tincan port command intercepted 27 parcels of Colorado, weighing 13.5kg.
The Agency stated that the seizure was made from a container, MSMU 5664550, coming from Toronto via Montreal, Canada, during a joint examination with men of Customs Service, disclosing that the synthetic substance was discovered concealed in a bag hidden a Ford Edge SUV, which was part of three units of used vehicles and motor parts in the container.
Also in Sokoto, the anti-narcotic agency said it arrested two male suspects: Nafiu Arzika, 30, and Jamilu Aminu, 35, with 330kg skunk, while another suspect, Ismaila Razak, 38, was arrested with 34.5kg of the same substance and 9.5 grams of methamphetamine on 2nd September at Olodo area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
This is even as NDLEA commands across the States and the FCT have intensified its War Against Drug Abuse advocacy campaigns to schools, worship places, palaces and local communities among others.
The agency said the sensitization lectures were conducted at Holy Trinity Gospel Church, Ogbomoso, and for Muslim faithful at Jammatul Nasirul Islam mosque, Ilorin; members of the Association of Hair Stylists in Ado Ekiti; leaders of road transport union in Abeokuta; traders at Kwata market, Awka; pregnant women at primary health care centre, Bonny; Dekara District palace, Babana community in Borgu LGA and at Noorul Huda Islamiyya school, Kafin Maiyaki, among others.
