The Nationwide Drug Regulation Enforcement Company (NDLEA) has seized massive consignments of illicit medication, together with greater than two million opioid drugs, over 2,000 kilogrammes of hashish and methamphetamine in coordinated operations throughout 9 states.
The operations, which lined Lagos, Adamawa, Ondo, Kaduna, Bauchi, Ekiti, Kogi, Taraba and Enugu states, additionally resulted within the arrest of a number of suspects and the disruption of a number of drug trafficking networks.
In a report printed on Sunday on its web site on the company’s actions within the final week, NDLEA stated it is operatives on the Murtala Muhammed Worldwide Airport Lagos recovered 966,200 tablets of Tramadol 225mg hid amongst thrift trousers in a 21-carton consignment from Pakistan.
The consignment was valued at greater than N1.1 billion, based on the company.
Operatives additionally recovered 57.80 kilogrammes of Loud, an artificial pressure of hashish, hid inside cartons of disposable hand gloves in a cargo from Singapore.
The company stated the consignment had remained unclaimed for weeks earlier than a joint examination was carried out by NDLEA officers, Customs and different safety companies on Thursday, September 3.
A serious breakthrough was recorded in Ondo State the place operatives intercepted a 20,000-litre gas tanker allegedly fitted with a hid compartment for transporting illicit medication.
The tanker, marked MKA 960 XC, was chased alongside the Akoko/Lokoja Expressway on Friday, September 4, after its driver reportedly refused to cease.
The driving force later deserted the car at a church premises in Ugbe Akoko and fled into the bush.
A search of the tanker uncovered 165 luggage of hashish weighing 2,145 kilogrammes hidden in a false compartment alongside its professional gas cargo, which was reportedly destined for Jos, Plateau State.
On the Lagos seaport, NDLEA operatives intercepted one other 598.08 kilogrammes of cannabis-laced cookies and gummies packed in 890 packets inside a 40-foot container.
The seizure was linked to a few suspects — Yashim Dauji, Larry Ifeanyi and Joseph Moji — who had been beforehand arrested at Tincan Port following the seizure of 842.54 kilogrammes of comparable cannabis-infused cookies.
In Adamawa State, NDLEA operatives recovered 864,000 opioid drugs, notably Tramadol, from a residence linked to a fleeing suspect, Patrick KC Frank, within the Damilu and Jambutu axis of Jimeta, Yola North Native Authorities Space.
The company stated Frank escaped after his Honda Civic rammed an NDLEA patrol car.
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In one other operation in Michika, 35-year-old Calistus Ebubechukwu was arrested with two kilogrammes of methamphetamine. NDLEA described him as a significant provider of the drug from Lagos to the Mubi and Michika axis.
At Namtari checkpoint in Mubi, operatives additionally intercepted Attahiru Hussaini with Tramadol and different opioids hid in a soap-laden Ford Galaxy bus marked JJM-953XD.
Lagos recorded one other main seizure when operatives recovered 2,386.9 kilogrammes of hashish, 350 grammes of cocaine, greater than 100 kilogrammes of various Tramadol grades, 9.7 litres of codeine syrup and 4 kilogrammes of Rohypnol at Gbaji.
Two suspects, Damilare Francis and Emeh Emmanuel, had been individually arrested at Agbara with 720 kilogrammes of hashish.
In Kogi State, three suspects — Saidu Mustapha, 35; Zaharadeen Salisu, 29; and AbdulSalam Abdullahi, 25 — had been arrested with 636 kilogrammes of hashish hid in hen manure aboard a bus travelling from Owo, Ondo State, to Jos.
In Taraba State, 58-year-old Kelechi Unachukwu was arrested alongside Zaki-Biam Street in Wukari Native Authorities Space with greater than 109 kilogrammes of various pharmaceutical opioids and different psychotropic substances.
The medication included Tramadol, Diazepam, Pentazocine, Phenobarbital, Exol-5, Nitrazepam, Bromazepam and Pregabalin. The consignment was allegedly being transported from Onitsha, Anambra State, to Yola, Adamawa State.
In Kaduna State, NDLEA operatives intercepted a truck loaded with luggage of cement alongside the Zaria-Kano Expressway and recovered 1,179 kilogrammes of skunk.
In Bauchi, 25-year-old Hamza Dahiru was arrested in a follow-up operation linked to the seizure of 322.5 kilogrammes of hashish at Deba city in Gombe State on September 1.
Ekiti State additionally recorded a significant operation as NDLEA operatives uncovered and destroyed a four-hectare hashish farm in Efon-Alaaye forest.
Two suspects, Chuks Alex, 50, and Asafa Adekunle, 35, had been arrested, whereas 117 kilogrammes of already harvested skunk had been recovered.
In Enugu State, 20-year-old Obinna David was arrested at Ugbema Junction with 40,590 capsules of Tramadol on Saturday, September 5.
Reacting to the operations, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Govt Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), recommended the officers and males of the company’s numerous instructions for what he described as their professionalism and intelligence-driven strategy.
Marwa urged the personnel to maintain the momentum within the battle towards illicit medication, stressing that traffickers making an attempt to evade detection wouldn’t escape the company’s attain.
He stated that “traffickers who imagine they will reinvent themselves underneath new identities or professional enterprise fronts will proceed to be tracked down.”
The NDLEA boss additional enjoined officers throughout the nation to take care of the company’s “present balanced strategy to the drug management efforts”, combining enforcement operations with drug abuse prevention and public sensitisation.
The company stated its instructions and formations throughout the nation additionally continued their Warfare Towards Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaigns in colleges, worship centres, workplaces and communities.
The NDLEA stated the campaigns stay an necessary part of its broader technique to scale back drug abuse whereas disrupting the availability of illicit substances throughout the nation.
