The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has broken two major cross-border drug trafficking syndicates and arrested six drug kingpins from Adamawa, Anambra, Lagos, and Cameroon.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the NDLEA’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, the group had been on the agency’s radar for several months because they were major narcotics dealers to terrorist groups operating in Nigeria and Cameroon.
He said, “After months of intelligence gathering and painstaking surveillance, operatives of the NDLEA have dismantled two major cross-border drug trafficking syndicates, with cocaine and opioids worth billions of naira recovered. Six leaders of the cartels were arrested in different parts of the country.
“The syndicates, which include Nigerians based in Mubi, Adamawa State; Onitsha, Anambra State; and Lagos State, as well as Cameroonians, came under the NDLEA’s radar after they were suspected of being major suppliers of drugs to terrorist groups operating in Nigeria and Cameroon.
“Leaders of the syndicates so far arrested include Ibrahim Bawuro, Najib Ibrahim, Ibrahim Umar, Nelson Anayo, Ezeh Martin, and Adejumo Ishola.
“Intelligence gathered revealed that some psychoactive substances, including tramadol, were often sourced by Ibrahim Bawuro and Ibrahim Najib from a notorious drug dealer in Onitsha, Nelson Udechukwu Anayo, and were then packed and concealed in vehicles at the premises of Ezeh Amaechi Martin, an associate of Udechukwu.
“The duo of Ibrahim Bawuro and Ibrahim Najib would transport the drugs from Onitsha to Yola and subsequently to other parts of the North and Cameroon in specially constructed false compartments of vehicles, which travelled from the East to the North at night.”
Babafemi further alleged that on October 7, 2024, Bawuro and Najib were pursued from Onitsha, where they had gone to purchase another consignment, and arrested in Taraba the next day.
A total of 276,500 tramadol pills were found from a Toyota Avensis saloon car labelled DKA 57 TT, which they abandoned on the Jalingo-Yola motorway after discovering NDLEA agents were on their trail.
“Follow-up operations were subsequently carried out in Delta and Anambra states, where Ezeh Amaechi Martin and Udechukwu Nelson Anayo were arrested by operatives of the NDLEA Directorate of Intelligence, which coordinated the entire effort with their counterparts in Taraba, Adamawa, Delta, and Anambra,” he added.
Babafemi further stated that Ishola, the boss of a different syndicate, was apprehended on Tuesday, November 5, at the Seme border in Lagos while on his way from Ghana with 3.3 kilograms of cocaine and 600 grams of fake cannabis.
The 37-year-old was detained after months of intelligence and surveillance into his cross-border criminal activities.
In another operation in Lagos, Babafemi reported that on November 6, operators at the Apapa harbour intercepted 31,750,000 pills of 240 mg of Voltron, a restricted opioid, wrapped and disguised in a container imported from India as diclofenac sodium 100 mg tablets.
He added, “The discovery was made during a joint examination of the container with officers of the Customs Service and other security agencies.
“At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), import shed, Ikeja, Lagos, NDLEA officers on Tuesday, November 5, intercepted a 700-gram consignment of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis. A software engineer, Olu Marshal, who showed up to collect the package, was promptly arrested, and a follow-up search of his home in Lekki led to the recovery of drug paraphernalia, including a cannabis crusher.”
Babafemi also stated that an effort by another suspect, Orji Nnaorji, to deliver 32.50 kg of codeine syrup and 5.70 kg of cannabis to London, UK, packed in tiger nuts cargo through the Lagos airport’s export shed was foiled by agents on November 8, 2024, among other interceptions.
