NDLEA foils drug smuggling attempt at Abuja airport, arrests businessman with 1.45kg of cocaine

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have intercepted a 40-year-old businessman, Ejike Chibuke Solomon with 1.45 kilograms of cocaine concealed in his luggage while attempting to board an Ethiopia Airlines flight number 950 to Vietnam via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja.

Ejike was arrested at the Abuja airport on Saturday 2nd March 2024 after NDLEA officers subjected him to a thorough search, and in the process, the illicit substance was discovered concealed, factory fitted, in his bag. In his statement, the suspect claimed he was on a business trip to Vietnam.

Meanwhile, operatives of a special unit of the Agency on Friday 1st March swooped on members of a syndicate that deals in methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin in their hideouts in parts of Lagos. The operatives assigned for the operation raided the home of Esimone Amachukwu Christopher at 14 Arochukwu street, Ejigbo, where 10.012 kilograms of methamphetamine was found in possession of his associate, 40-year-old Evelyn Nneka Okem. Esimone is currently at large.

While the Ejigbo operation was going on, another set of officers were simultaneously busy in the residence of another member of the syndicate, 45-year-old Ebele Edwin Iwuegbunam, located at Plot 1604 Close D, 4th Avenue, Festac town, Lagos where they arrested him and recovered 429.5grams of cocaine and 7 kilograms of heroin.

In Kogi state, NDLEA officers on a stop and search operation along Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway on Friday 1st March intercepted a commercial bus marked GRM 347XA (Borno) conveying 28 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 11kg; 100 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup and 500 tablets of diazepam, all concealed in three plastic drums covered with cattle fats, heading to Jos Plateau state.

While operatives in Ogun state on Thursday 29th February recovered 169kg consignment of cannabis abandoned in a truck at Sagamu tollgate, their counterparts in Lagos seized 25 cartons of tramadol containing 325,000 pills in Ikeja the previous day Wednesday 28th Feb. Same day, a suspect, Abdullahi Garba Khalil, 42, and 2,745,000 capsules of pregabalin recovered from him at Singer market, Sabon Gari area of Kano were handed over to the Kano state command of NDLEA by the Department of State Security, DSS.

In the same vein, the 243 Recce Battalion, Nigerian Army, Badagry on Saturday 2nd March transferred 27 sacks of cannabis sativa weighing 1,110kg recovered at a coastal community, Ajido by soldiers, to the Seme Special Area Command of NDLEA. A suspect, Hassan Muhammad, 34, was on Saturday 2nd March arrested with 44,950 pills of tramadol at Moranti area of Borno state by NDLEA operatives.

In Abia state, NDLEA operatives on Thursday 28th Feb raided a drug joint at Cemetery Barracks, Aba, where Ifeanyi Uche, 37, was arrested with different quantities of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. Another raid was carried out at the abandoned Eyimba Hotel, Ogbor Hill, Aba, where illicit substances were seized and suspects arrested on Friday 1st March.

With the same zeal, the various commands of the Agency across the country continued with the War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, advocacy campaign in the past week. Some of them include: WADA sensitisation lecture for students and teachers of Fobin Primary and Secondary School, Idiroko, Seme, Lagos; Army Barracks Grammar School, Mokola, Ibadan, Oyo state; State Model Secondary School, Awka, Anambra state; Government Girls Secondary School, Okumgba-Ama, Ogoloma, Okrika, Rivers state and leaders and residents of Lapan community, Gombe state, among others.

While commending the officers and men of the NAIA, Abia, Ogun, Kogi, Lagos, Seme, Borno and Kano Commands of the Agency as well as those of the Special Unit for their outstanding feats in the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) equally applauded them and their counterparts in all the commands across the country for intensifying their WADA advocacy lectures.