The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a cleric Pastor Anietie Okon Effiong with three drums of crystal methamphetamine, locally called Mkpuru Mmiri.
According to the agency, the consignment is believed to have been imported from India.
“The consignment weighing 90 kilograms and loaded into a commercial bus with registration number RSH 691XC at Ojuelegba in Lagos was intercepted during a stop and search operation along Umuahia – Ikot Ekpene Highway on Saturday 6th August 2022,” NDLEA’s Director of Media & Advocacy Femi Babafemi said in a statement on Sunday.
“The dangerous drug packed 30kg in each drum was meant for Pastor Anietie Okon Effiong, who was arrested in a follow-up operation at Oron beach in Oron. The recovered Meth drums were meant for onward delivery to the Republic of Cameroon.”
This development followed seizures of the same illicit substance – weighing 4.074kg going to Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines with a 3kg Cannabis Sativa heading to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates at some courier companies in Lagos. They were concealed in body cream, hot burner iron, and beads.
Similarly, operatives of the anti-drug agency nabbed a 90-year-old retired soldier, Usman Adamu in Sokoto on Wednesday for supplying illicit drugs to bandits.
The suspect was arrested in Mailalle, Sabon Birni council area of the northwestern state with 5.1kg of Cannabis Sativa
“At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, a 37-year-old indigene of Ovia LGA, Edo State and resident in Italy; Solo Osamede has been arrested for ingesting 41 wraps of heroin,” Babafemi added.
“He was nabbed and taken into custody for excretion while attempting to board a Turkish Airline flight to Milan, Italy via Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday 30th July. The swallowed wraps of the illicit drug were recovered in four excretions, which the suspect completed on Monday 1st Aug.”
Also, a female passenger Jatau Lydia Lami was arrested at the Lagos Airport for attempting to export 1,700 tablets of Tramadol 225mg. They were concealed in her luggage to Istanbul, Turkey via a Turkish Airline flight on Sunday 31st July.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect, a mother of three, hails from Zango Kataf LGA, Kaduna State and lives in Istanbul, Turkey with her family. She blamed her action on pressure to raise N5 million ransom to free her mother from the captivity of bandits who kidnapped her since June,” the NDLEA said.
Also at the SAHCO export shed of the airport, attempts by some freight agents to export two consignments of cannabis in a consolidated cargo to Dubai, UAE on Thursday 4th Aug were thwarted by NDLEA operatives who arrested two of them in follow-up operations.
The suspects, the NDLEA spokesman said, are Oladipupo Oladapo Fatai and Animashaun Qudus, while two others are still at large.
Equally, operatives on Thursday 4th Aug intercepted a truck from Benin, Edo State en route to Sokoto with 50,000 tablets of Diazepam owned by a drug dealer Umaru Attahiru.
In Kogi State, 14 sacks containing 1,376 bottles of codeine-based syrup weighing 190.4kg were seized along the Okene-Abuja highway on Wednesday 3rd Aug.
“The exhibits were found in a delivery bus coming from Onitsha, Anambra, and heading to Abuja. Follow-up operation in Abuja same day led to the arrest of Jude Ikenna and Ozoemene Cornelius,” the statement further read.
“In Kaduna, four suspects: Sulaiman Rabi’u; Sanusi Sha’aibu; Ma’aruf Habibu, and Christian Nnachor, were arrested in Zaria, Tafa, and Romi Kaduna with 106, 770 tablets of Tramadol 225mg, Diazepam, Exol-5 and 100 bottles of codeine cough syrup.
“In Enugu, 143.5kg Cannabis Sativa was recovered from locked up stores in new market area of the state capital on Saturday 6th Aug, while in Delta, a suspect Ike Okparachi, 42, was arrested at Abraka Junction, Asaba with 10,550 tablets of Tramadol 225mg; Swinol; Rohypnol; and 3,105 bottles of codeine syrup as well as 69grams of Molly.”
While commending the operatives for the feats, the Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa charged them and other staff of the agency to continue in the same fashion.
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