Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA have snooped in on a notorious drug kingpin, Charles Uwagbale, during his piling up his new recruited mule, Uju Dominic, with 93 pellets of cocaine meant for distribution in Italy.
A statement by the spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi on Sunday read that: “It was a rude shock to a notorious drug kingpin who specializes in sponsoring young Nigerians to traffick Class A drugs to Europe especially Italy, when operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, stormed his hotel room in Okota area of Lagos late on Friday 21st July when he was preparing a recruited courier to swallow 93 pellets of cocaine meant for distribution in Italy.
“The 48-year-old drug kingpin, Charles Uwagbale, had recruited Uju Dominic, 35, from his base in Italy with a deal to come to Nigeria, ingest 100 pellets of cocaine on Friday 21st July and return to Italy on Saturday 22nd July. True to plan, upon the arrival in Nigeria, the mule was lodged in Golden Heaven Hotel located at Enoma street off Ago-Palace way, Okota, Isolo, Lagos where Uwagbale brought 93 wraps of the Class A drug for him to swallow at about 23:45pm Friday night.
“They were in the process when NDLEA operatives who have been on their trail following credible intelligence stormed their hotel room, arrested both and recovered the drug exhibits with a total weight of 1.427 kilogrammes. Operatives of the Lagos state Command of the agency who made the arrest and seizure had on Thursday 20th July raided Akala in Mushin area of the state where they recovered 37.5 kilogrammes cannabis from the home of a fleeing suspect.”
Babafemi also disclosed that attempts to smuggle 98 cartons containing 5,122,900 pills of tramadol 225mg with an estimated street value of about N3.7 billion into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, have been thwarted through the robust synergy between men of the Nigeria Customs Service and NDLEA officers at the airport as well as those at the DHL cargo warehouse.
He noted that preliminary findings revealed that the consignments were imported from India and Pakistan, while some of the seized consignments had Freetown, Sierra Leone as final destination.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Bauchi state have recovered a total of 6,265,080 pills of opioids from three suspects: Emmanuel Onyebuchi, 32; Uche Iyida, 33; and Chinedu Ezeanyim, 32 following their arrest alongside a truck driver and his assistant at Shopping Complex, Maiduguri Bye-Pass, Bauchi town last Wednesday and the subsequent follow up search of the residence of Iyida last Friday.
Babafemi also said no fewer than 999,500 tablets of Exol-5 were recovered by operatives from a shop close to the market at Hong Road, Gombi, Adamawa state on Friday 21st July, while 46,000 capsules of tramadol were seized from a suspect, Paul Ajaegbu, 36, along Owerri – Aba road, Imo state last Monday.
He said the same suspect had earlier been arrested, precisely on 9th February 2023, for the same offence.
In Ondo state, according to him, NDLEA operatives in their numbers stormed the Ofosu forest where they destroyed 29 hectares of cannabis farms last Thursday during which the quartet of Osamezu Chukwuemeka, 51, who owns the farm; his wife Kate Osamezu, 43; Agboola Wasiu, 37 and Mustapha Sanni, were arrested in the operation, while 118.5 kilogrammes processed cannabis was recovered from the farm.
In another raid of the warehouse of a suspect at Elegbeka, Ose local government area not less than 107 jumbo bags of the same illicit substance weighing 1,132.5 kilogrammes were recovered last Monday.
Operatives in Sokoto state arrested a suspect, Charles Nwankwo, 50, with 610 kilogrammes of cannabis in Tamaje area of the capital, Sokoto last Friday, their counterparts in Yobe also same day nabbed a fleeing suspect Shaibu Musa, 29, in Dawasa while he was offering them a bribe of N500,000 following the seizure of 36 kilogrammes skunk in his house last Wednesday.
In Edo state, operatives last Monday raided the Utese forest Ovia North East local government area, where they arrested Victor Asukwo Jack, with 59 bags of processed cannabis sativa weighing 640 kilogrammes. His two cannabis farms measuring about 1.5 hectares and 2.4 hectares were destroyed. Also, Endurance Chukwuma, 50, was arrested with seven bags of processed cannabis sativa weighing 68 kilogrammes, while his cannabis farm measuring 0.25 hectares was destroyed.
A total of 273kg cannabis was earlier intercepted in a Toyota Sienna Vehicle marked RBC 451 CM last Wednesday at Ogida, Benin City, and a suspect, Lucky Oriakhi, 41, arrested while operatives also seized 48,380 pills of tramadol in a commercial bus marked KAK 66 XA along Ewohimi road, heading to Kabba, Kogi state and arrested the driver, Ibrahim John.
In Nasarawa, two suspects: Abubakar Suleiman, 30 and Shehu Garba (aka Shagari), 29 were arrested along Keffi – Akwanga road last Tuesday in a Peugeot J5 vehicle loaded with 1,608.4 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa. The consignment was loaded in Edo state and meant for distribution in Bauchi state.
While a total of 1,556.1 kilogrammes of cannabis was recovered from two suspects: Jonathan Nuhu, 54 and Mohammed Abubakar, 18, following their arrest at Wudil area of Kano State last Thursday, 76 kilogrammes of same substance was seized from Yakubu Muhammad, 32, last Monday along Okene/Lokoja highway in a trailer coming from Port Harcourt to Kano.
Operatives in Ogun state last Wednesday, recovered 810 parcels of cannabis weighing 604 kilogrammes from the house of one Adetunji Abiodun.
Babafemi said a fresh bid to smuggle into Nigeria, another consignment of Colorado, a synthetic variant of cannabis, through the Tincan port in Apapa Lagos was again last Friday frustrated by NDLEA officers who discovered a total of 323 parcels of the illicit substance weighing 161.5 kilogrammes concealed in one of the four used vehicles in a container marked MEDU 7519460 coming from Montreal, Canada, during a joint examination of the shipment.
He said “at least, three suspects are currently in NDLEA custody over the shipment while a bribe of N20 million converted to $22,900 offered operatives by the importer’s agents has also been recovered and documented as evidence.”
Meanwhile, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd) who was impressed by the volume of arrests and seizures made by officers and men of MMIA, Lagos, Bauchi, Adamawa, Ondo, Sokoto, Yobe, Edo, Imo, Kano, Kogi, Ogun, Nasarawa and Tincan Commands in the past week, commended them for jobs well done while urging them and their counterparts across the country to continue the synergy with other security agencies and stakeholders in the fight against substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking.
Michael Olugbode in Abuja
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