.arrests notorious drug dealer behind London-bound multiple consignments
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it frustrated drug traffickers’ desperate attempts to export large kilogrammes of Cocaine, Methamphetamine and Cannabis in three different states of the country.
NDLEA’s spokesperson Femi Babafemi said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
Bababfemi said that operatives of the agency seized the consignments which were enroute London, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirate and New Zealand, through two major courier firms in Lagos.
He said that some of the consignments were concealed in containers of body cream, tea bags, vehicle oil and air filters.
Babafemi further said the anti-drug agency operatives on Nov. 5, similarly arrested two suspects, Ibrahim Sulaiman and Muhammad Alhassan, in Kano State, while trying to export illicit consignment .
According to him, the suspects were arrested with 23kgs of Diazepam tablets; 2kgs of Codeine syrup and 32kgs of Exol 5 tablets, bringing the total weight to 57kgs.
“Earlier on Wednesday, Nov. 3, operatives of the Kano Command of the agency had arrested one Mizambilu Tijjani, with 64 kilograms of cannabis sativa.
“The operatives also arrested one victor Nsodikwa with 34 cartons of Pentazocine injection and one carton of Diazepam injection in Sabongari area of the city, ” he said.
Babafemi said that the operatives also seized a consignment containing 28.251kgs of Exol-5; 6.6kgs of Barcadin Codeine Syrup; over 38.532kgs of Tramadol, bringing the total drugs seized to 73.808kgs in Kogi.
He added that NDLEA’s operatives in Osun State command seized 130.518kgs of cannabis and 18grams of Cocaine in Modakeke area of Ile-Ife.
Babafemi quoted the Chairman, NDLEA, retired, Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa, as commending the officers and men of the agency and their counterparts in Kano, Kogi and Osun states for their good deeds.
“Marwa commended them for sustaining the heat on the cartels across the country.
“He urged them and their compatriots in other commands to intensify the offensive action against all merchants of death in Nigeria,” he said
Meanwhile, The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), says it has arrested a suspected notorious drug dealer, Mr Okoli Ikenna, described as the mastermind of recent multiple attempts to export illicit drugs.
The agency made the disclosure of the arrest in a statement, released by Mr Femi Babafemi, its Director, Media and Advocacy, on Sunday in Abuja.
Bababfemi said that the suspect had been linked to several trafficking in illicit drugs to London, United Kingdom, through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).
He noted that the suspect had been on bail, granted by a Lagos State Federal High Court after he was arraigned in November 2020 over a charge of an attempt to export 15.700kgs of Methamphetamine to Australia.
Babafemi said the agency has since then been investigating the suspect’s activities linked to recent multiple attempts to export illicit drugs to the UK which culminated in his arrest on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
According to him, the suspect had on him 78 parcels of Cannabis, concealed in black soap packs labelled as Dudu Osun, with a total weight of 12.250 kilogrammes while attempting to fly to the UK.
Bababfemi said that further investigation revealed that the suspect had been behind the attempt to export 7.350kgs of Cannabis to the UK on Thursday Oct. 21.
He said that officials of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc (NAHCO) export shed at the MMIA,
intercepted the consignments.
Bababfemi said “curiously, a separate investigation by operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, (DOGI,) of the Agency, attached to courier companies, have equally traced two other attempts to the suspect.
“An attempt to export 47.7kgs of cannabis to the UK through courier firms, to Okoli after his agents were arrested in the course of investigation, named him as the owner of the consignments,” he said. (NAN)
