The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, stormed a notorious drug kingpin who specializes in sponsoring young Nigerians to traffic class A drugs to Europe, particularly Italy, late on Friday 21st July 2023, as he was preparing a recruited courier to swallow 93 pellets of cocaine meant for distribution in Italy.
Charles Uwagbale, 48, had recruited Uju Dominic, 35, from his base in Italy with the promise of coming to Nigeria, ingesting 100 pellets of cocaine on Friday 21st July, and returning to Italy on Saturday 22nd July.
“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 kilograms.
“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 37.5kg cannabis from the home of a fleeing suspect.
Furthermore, attempts to smuggle 98 cartons of Tramadol 225mg pills with an estimated street value of three billion seven hundred million naira (N3.7billion) into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, have been foiled.
This was accomplished through a strong collaboration between individuals from the Nigeria Customs Service, NDLEA officers at the airport, and those at the DHL cargo depot.
According to preliminary findings, the consignments were imported from India and Pakistan, with some of the seized consignments bound for Freetown, Sierra Leone.
