The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has uncovered consignments of high-potency illicit drugs concealed inside water purifier machines shipped to Lagos from the Netherlands.
The agency’s operatives intercepted the contraband, comprising three kilogrammes of ketamine and 199 grammes of MDMA (Ecstasy) pills hidden within the appliances, during a search operation at a logistics and courier firm in Lagos.
Director of Media and Advocacy at the NDLEA headquarters, Femi Babafemi, confirmed the development in a statement released in Abuja.
He said several interdiction operations across Kaduna, Niger, and Enugu states yielded massive seizures and led to the arrest of multiple syndicate members.
In Kaduna State, anti-narcotics operatives raided a residence in the Gonin Gora area, recovering 100 jumbo bags of skunk weighing 1,246 kilogrammes.
A couple, identified as Musa Sunday and Mercy Sunday, alongside an accomplice, 38-year-old Salomi Ezekiel, were apprehended in connection with the storage facility.
A separate highway patrol by the agency along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway near Jere intercepted a 30-year-old suspect, Sunusi Musa, in possession of 380 rounds of military-grade RLA 7.62mm ammunition.
The suspect, who was allegedly transporting the live rounds to Katsina State, has been transferred to the appropriate military authorities for further investigation.
In a similar vein, intelligence-led raids in Niger State led operatives to a warehouse in Gidan Kukah, Bosso Local Government Area, where 457 kilogrammes of skunk were confiscated, resulting in the arrest of 46-year-old Godwin Zakka at his residence in Minna.
Meanwhile, a search of a Taraba-bound commercial vehicle along the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway resulted in the seizure of 22,000 pills of tramadol, 100 ampoules of pentazocine, and 200 grammes of bromazepam, with one James Maigari Wisdom taken into custody.
Reacting to the successful operations, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Mohamed Marwa, commended officers across the state commands and the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) for balancing aggressive drug supply reduction with the agency’s War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaigns.
Marwa said, “Commands and formations of the Agency across the country must continue their sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres, workplaces, and communities.”
He charged personnel not to rest on their oars in sanitising the nation of illicit substances and illegal arms flows.
