The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced the arrest of Sherif Egbo, a 40-year-old ‘businessman,’ at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
In a statement issued on Sunday, NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi claimed a body scanner confirmed that Egbo had wraps of illegal narcotics in his stomach.
According to him, the suspect was apprehended on October 14 while attempting to board an Air France trip to Paris, France, when anti-narcotics authorities detected he had consumed illegal drugs.
“He was subsequently placed under observation at the agency’s exhibit recovery room where he excreted 93 pellets of heroin weighing 2.222 kilogrammes. In his statement, the suspect claimed he works at a chicken hatchery farm in Madrid, Spain, and also in the drug trafficking business,” the NDLEA spokesman said.
On Monday, October 16, authorities from the NAHCO imports shed at Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos intercepted a consignment of ten cartons containing 500,000 pills of tramadol 225mg branded as tapentadol.
The package was supposed to be a transit shipment to Monrovia, Liberia, and was shipped from India by Qatar Airways with airwaybill number MAWB 319-01227236. The lid was blown open, however, thanks to collaboration and real-time intelligence-sharing systems between the NDLEA and its Liberian equivalent.
Similarly, NDLEA agents stopped an effort by an intending passenger, Ngene Chinecherem, on Qatar Airways to transport 11.100kgs of skunk and 600 grammes of tramadol hidden in groceries to Muscat, Oman.
According to Babafemi, the guy was apprehended at the Lagos airport and the illegal narcotics were recovered.
On Sunday, October 15, NDLEA agents intercepted a Mercedes Benz container truck with the licence plate ABN 418 YN parked in an isolated place along the Owerri-Onitsha Motorway in Imo State. A search of the abandoned truck yielded 168 bags of skunk weighing 1,854 kilogrammes.
The agency said that less than 1,381.3kgs of the same substance were seized in four interdiction operations in parts of Edo state including – Ekpon community, Igueben LGA; Iguiye forest in Ovia North East LGA; Iruekpen, Ndokwa West where a suspect, Monday Nwocha was arrested; and in Egwalor village in Onwude LGA where the duo of Obune Prince and Chika Obi were arrested and their Audi 80 salon car marked BEN 406 CL loaded with cannabis sativa, recovered.
On Saturday, October 14, an ex-convict, Aminu Suleiman, 46, was arrested along with Haruna Abdurrahaman, 41, and Ojo Esezobor, 34, in Kano state, with 106kgs of cannabis recovered from them. Aminu was apprehended with 22kgs of cannabis on June 3, 2022, and was convicted by the court on November 24, 2022, according to the NDLEA.
Four additional suspects, Inusa Ali, Yahaya Musa, Abba Audu, Ali Abubakar, and Bunu Kyari, were arrested on Monday 16th October in Kano’s Gadar Tamburawa neighbourhood for trafficking in 75.3kgs of skunk.
On Friday, October 20, NDLEA agents from Zone J Command confiscated 478kgs of cannabis in a forest in Ikere Ekiti and recovered a total of 928kgs of the same material in a bush near Shagari market, along the Ifon-Owo express road, and Ibola camp, Ipele forest in Ondo State.
Sani Mohammed, a suspect in Borno State, was apprehended on Saturday, October 21, with 182kgs of cannabis at Njimtilo, along the Maiduguri-Damaturu route.
On Sunday, October 15, NDLEA officers from the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations, DOGI, attached to courier companies intercepted 1kg methamphetamine concealed in containers of body cream bound for New Zealand, as well as 2.5kgs cocaine and phenacetin concealed in the walls of a carton bound for Saudi Arabia.
