Ex-beauty queen, Aderinoye surrenders to NDLEA after eight months
…NDLEA intercepts million of pills, opioids worth billions at Lagos, Port harcourt port
By Adeyanju Esther
A former beauty queen Aderinoye Queen Christmas has surrendered to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) after evading capture for eight months.
Aderinoye, who was declared wanted by the NDLEA, had been in hiding since a January 2024 raid connected her to drug activities.
According to NDLEA’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, Aderinoye turned herself in on August 28, 2024.
“I am pleased to announce that Aderinoye Queen Christmas has surrendered to the NDLEA. This is a significant breakthrough in our fight against drug trafficking,” said Babafemi.
Aderinoye, who previously held the title of Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016, had been hiding in Akure, Ondo State, since escaping the initial raid.
During the raid at her home, NDLEA operatives discovered 606 grams of Canadian Loud, an electronic weighing scale, and significant quantities of drug packaging materials, among other items.
“We are committed to combating drug-related crimes and reducing drug demand and supply,” said NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd).
In related operations, NDLEA agents seized 1,122 kilograms of cannabis from a suspect named Mustapha Ibrahim in Ajah, Lagos State, on Monday, August 26. An additional 816 kilograms of cannabis, belonging to another suspect who remains at large, was also recovered from the same location.
Also, NDLEA have intercepted a total of 31,124,600 pills of tramadol 225mg and bottles of codeine-based syrup, valued at over N17,932,200,000.00.
This operation took place at the Port Harcourt Port Complex in Onne, Rivers State, and the Tincan Seaport in Lagos.
Babafemi stated that the seizures were made based on intelligence processed by the Agency regarding the movement of the shipments from their port of origin in India.
This led to a request for a 100 percent joint examination of the watch-listed containers by the Nigerian Customs Service and other sister security agencies.
The details of the seizures indicates that 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were seized from two containers at Tincan Port in Lagos on Thursday, August 29, and Friday, August 30, 2024. Each container contained 175,000 bottles of the opioid.
At the Port Harcourt Port Complex in Onne, NDLEA operatives also intercepted 447 cartons of tramadol 225mg, containing twenty-nine million, eight hundred forty thousand (29,840,000) pills of the opioid, along with 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers on Thursday, August 29.
The tramadol shipments were labeled under various brand names, including Royal Tapetadol, Carisoprodol 225mg, and Royal Tramadol Hydrochloride 225mg.
The following day, Friday, August 30, NDLEA conducted a joint examination of another set of three containers. This inspection resulted in the recovery of 3,030 cartons of codeine syrup, containing a total of 554,600 bottles of the opioid.
Overall, the total number of codeine bottles seized at Onne, Rivers, and Tincan in Lagos amounts to 1,284,600 bottles, valued at N8,992,200,000.00. The combined seizure of tramadol reached 29,840,000 pills, with a street value of N8,940,000,000.00.
Babafemi further noted that, in a similar operation, NDLEA operatives at Port Harcourt International Airport in Rivers State arrested a suspect, Eze Emekan Don, on Tuesday, August 27.
He was caught trying to board a Cronos airline flight to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, with 1,490 pills of tramadol hidden and disguised as various brands of cosmetics inside his luggage. His attempt to bribe the officers to avoid arrest was unsuccessful.
