Operatives of the National Drug
Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a Vietnam-bound businessman, Paul
Mbadugha, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, after he
tested positive for ingesting cocaine.
NDLEA said the 54-year-old
suspect was intercepted at the boarding gate of the Abuja airport on Monday,
12th August 2024, during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432
to Hanoi, Vietnam via Doha.
The agency stated that Mbadugha
ingested a total of 88 wraps of the illicit drug with a gross weight of 1.710
kilograms after four days under excretion observation.
This was announced on Sunday in
a statement by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media & Advocacy, NDLEA
Headquarters, Abuja.
Babafemi disclosed that the
suspect, in his statement, claimed he’s a Lagos-based businessman and was given
the cocaine pellets to swallow by a friend in the Isolo area of the state for
onward delivery in Vietnam for a fee of $2,000.
Babafemi also announced that
NDLEA officers at the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport
(MMIA) Ikeja, Lagos, have intercepted a shipment of Loud, a synthetic strain of
cannabis weighing 800 grams concealed in noodles going to Congo.
According to him, a follow-up
operation at the Alaba International Market, Ojo area of Lagos, led to the
arrest of the sender of the consignment, Nnamani Sunday Sunny, who deals in GSM
handsets.
Meanwhile, a large consignment
of Loud imported from Canada has been recovered by NDLEA operatives at the
Lagos airport. A suspect, Desalu Taophic Temitope, who arrived on board an Air
France flight with six boxes, was arrested by anti-narcotic officers during a
joint examination by security agencies at the arrival hall.
Babafemi, in the statement,
disclosed that a total of 65.80 kilograms of the psychoactive substance was
recovered from four of the six suitcases.
He explained that Desalu said
he and an accomplice currently at large were promised $10,000 upon the
successful delivery of the shipment in Lagos.
Announcing further details of
other seizures, Babafemi said: “No less than Eight Hundred and Ninety-Two
Thousand Four Hundred (892,400) bottles of codeine-based syrup worth Six
Billion Two Hundred and Forty-Six Million Eight Hundred Thousand Naira
(N6,246,800,000.00) in street value were recovered from five containers by
NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers State, during
a joint examination of the containers with men of the Nigeria Customs and other
port stakeholders on Wednesday, 14th, and Thursday, 15th August 2024.
“The bottles of the opioid were
packed in 5,337 cartons with a gross weight of 133,860 kilograms and shipped in
five containers from India.
“In Ekiti State, NDLEA
operatives, supported by men of the Nigerian Army and other security agencies
as well as community youths, on Wednesday, 14th August, raided the Ise forest
reserve, Saalaja camp, Ise-Ekiti, where 21,800 kilograms of cannabis sativa on
20 hectares of farmland were destroyed.
“The following day, Thursday,
15th August, NDLEA officers on patrol along Onitsha-Enugu road in Enugu
intercepted a Sienna bus marked SKA-24 AG, from which 200.2kg of cannabis was
recovered, and the driver, Okoro Emmanuel, 41, was arrested.
“While the duo of Joseph Apeh, 45, and Diamond
Nnabuike, 21, were arrested with 145,400 pills of tramadol on Monday, 12th
August, at Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano, NDLEA operatives in Ogun State on
Tuesday, 13th August, arrested 70-year-old Fidelis Egede and three others:
Samuel Sylvanus, 31; Jato Samson, 33; and Francis Blessing, 28, when a cannabis
plantation on six hectares was raided at Alaka village.
“In Abuja, NDLEA officers on
patrol along Kwali-Gwagwalada expressway on Tuesday, 13th August, intercepted a
truck from which 30,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection were recovered and
three suspects: Ifeanyi Sunday, Jeremiah Paul, and Edet Ubokobong were
arrested.
“While operatives in Niger
State on Thursday, 15th August, arrested Ifeanyi Chukwueze in Kontagora town
with 28,500 pills of tramadol concealed in a loudspeaker, their counterparts in
Kogi State on Wednesday, 14th August, nabbed Abba Yakubu with 40,000 pills of
the same opioid heading to Kontagora.
“Another suspect, Tochukwu
Onah, 39, was arrested by NDLEA officers at Paparanda, Lokoja, on Thursday,
15th August 2024, with 1,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection.”
Reacting to the development,
the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa
(Rtd), commended the officers and men of the NAIA, MMIA, PHPC, FCT, Kogi, Ogun,
Ekiti, Kano, Enugu, and Niger Commands of the Agency for the arrests and
seizures of the past week.
Marwa also applauded their
compatriots in all the commands across the country for intensifying the WADA
sensitization lectures and advocacy messages to every part of their areas of
responsibility.
Post a Comment