A convicted cocaine trafficker who allegedly returned to the drug trade after serving a five-year prison sentence has been arrested in Lagos, exposing how narcotics syndicates are increasingly using legitimate businesses, false identities and everyday commodities to conceal their operations.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said 34-year-old Dunu Ebubechukwu was arrested in a sting operation at Article Market, opposite Trade Fair Market, Ojo, Lagos, after investigators traced him to a cocaine shipment intercepted weeks earlier on its way to Saudi Arabia.
According to a statement by the spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi, the case began on July 31, when NDLEA operatives intercepted 1.2 kilogrammes of cocaine hidden inside phone chargers at a courier company in Lagos. The parcel was reportedly destined for Riyadh.
Rather than ending with the seizure, investigators followed the trail to the person allegedly behind the shipment.
According to the Babafemi, painstaking intelligence gathering by the agency’s Directorate of Operations and General Investigation eventually led officers to Ebubechukwu, who was arrested on September 4 while presenting himself as a herbal tea businessman.
His arrest led to the discovery that Ebubechukwu had previously been arrested in 2011 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, after he ingested 900 grammes of cocaine and 130 grammes of heroin in an attempt to travel to Austria.
He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, but according to NDLEA, the imprisonment did not end his involvement in the illicit trade.
He was said to have later changed his name from Dunu Chukwuyenre Enoch to Dunu Bethel Ebubechukwu and allegedly returned to drug trafficking, this time operating behind the appearance of a legitimate business.
Babafemi said the latest alleged operation also showed the lengths to which traffickers can go to disguise their consignments.
A search of his Ejigbo residence uncovered phone chargers similar to those used in the intercepted Saudi-bound shipment, with their internal components removed to create spaces for drugs.
Ebubechukwu’s arrest came as NDLEA operations across nine states exposed a much wider web of trafficking involving cannabis, opioids, methamphetamine, cocaine, codeine and other controlled substances.
At Lagos airport, operatives seized 966,200 tablets of Tramadol 225mg, valued at more than N1.1 billion, concealed among thrift trousers in a consignment from Pakistan.
Another shipment from Singapore yielded 57.8 kilogrammes of Loud, a synthetic cannabis strain valued at more than N173 million, concealed inside cartons of disposable hand gloves.
The most dramatic concealment, however, occurred on the highway in Ondo State, where NDLEA officers pursued a 20,000-litre fuel tanker that allegedly refused to stop.
The driver eventually abandoned the tanker at a church premises in Ugbe Akoko and escaped into the bush.
Inside the vehicle, officers discovered a false compartment containing 165 bags of cannabis weighing 2,145 kilogrammes, hidden alongside its legitimate fuel cargo reportedly destined for Jos.
At Tincan Port, Lagos, NDLEA officers also intercepted 598.08 kilogrammes of cannabis-infused cookies and gummies packed in 890 packets inside a 40-foot container. The consignment was linked to three suspects already in custody over an earlier seizure of 842.54 kilogrammes of cannabis-laced cookies.
In Adamawa, the agency recovered 864,000 opioid pills, principally tramadol, from a residence linked to a fleeing suspect. Another operation in Michika led to the arrest of a suspected methamphetamine supplier with 2 kilogrammes of the drug.
Across the other states, the pattern continued with Lagos yielding 2,386.9 kilogrammes of cannabis, 350 grammes of cocaine, more than 100 kilogrammes of assorted tramadol, codeine syrup and rohypnol. Kogi officers intercepted 636 kilogrammes of cannabis allegedly concealed in chicken manure. Taraba yielded more than 109 kilogrammes of assorted pharmaceutical drugs, while Kaduna operatives recovered 1,179 kilogrammes of skunk from a truck carrying cement.
In Ekiti, officers destroyed a four-hectare cannabis farm and recovered 117 kilogrammes of already-harvested skunk. In Enugu, 20-year-old Obinna David was arrested with 40,590 tramadol capsules.
For NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), the arrest of Ebubechukwu demonstrates why sustained intelligence gathering remains critical.
Marwa commended the officers involved in the operations and urged them to maintain the Agency’s balanced approach to drug control, combining enforcement with prevention and public sensitisation.
He also sent a direct warning to traffickers attempting to escape law enforcement by assuming new identities or establishing legitimate business fronts.
The arrest of a man who allegedly served a prison sentence for cocaine and heroin trafficking, changed his identity and later resurfaced under the cover of a herbal tea business gives that warning particular weight.
Michael Olugbode
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