The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has uncovered a large consignment of drugs worth N8,860,000,000 from one of the mansions of a billionaire drug baron, Ugochukwu Nsofor Chukwukadibia, in the highbrow residential estate, Victoria Garden City, Lekki area of Lagos.
The substances are contained in hundreds of cartons kept in a house in Victoria Garden City (VGC).
NDLEA Director of Media, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Monday.
According to Babafemi, NDLEA operatives had last Friday stormed Plot A45 Road 2, home of the 52-year-old billionaire drug kingpin, following credible intelligence.
The statement read in part, “No less than N13,451,466 pills of Tramadol 225mg worth N8,860,000,000 in street value have been recovered by operatives of the National Drug Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, from one of the mansions of a billionaire drug baron, Ugochukwu Nsofor Chukwukadibia, in the highbrow residential estate, Victoria Garden City (VGC), Lekki area of Lagos.
“The arrest of Ugochukwu, who is the Chairman of Autonation Motors Ltd, is coming barely two months after NDLEA uncovered a methamphetamine clandestine laboratory in the residence of another drug kingpin in the estate, Chris Emeka Nzewi, who was arrested on Saturday 30th July along with a chemist, Sunday Ukah, who cooked the illicit drug for him. At least 258.74 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and various precursor chemicals used for the production of the toxic drug were recovered from Nzewi’s home during his arrest.
“Following credible intelligence, NDLEA operatives on Friday 30th September stormed the Plot A45 Road 2 home of the 52-year-old billionaire drug kingpin. A search of the expansive mansion led to the discovery of 443 cartons of Tramadol Hydrochloride 225mg, which contains 13,451,466 pills of the drug while some cartons were already burnt in a fire incident in the house the same day.”
Before his arrest, Chukwukadibia, who hails from the Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State, had been on NDLEA’s watch list as one of those behind the tramadol drug cartel in Nigeria.