A major raid has been made by the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in foiling fresh attempts by Brazil based drug cartels to smuggle substantial quantities of cocaine into Nigeria through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, and Murtala Muhammed International Airport MMIA), Lagos, by concealing the Class-A illicit substance in teabags.
This was made public by the spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement yesterday.
He said no fewer than four traffickers involved in the attempts to import and export illicit drugs into the country in the last week are now in custody.
One of them, he said, is 33-year-old Pascal Ekene Okolo, an indigene of Ihe in Ogwu Local Council of Enugu State, who was arrested during an inward clearance of Qatar Airways flight from Sao Paulo via Doha at the arrival hall of the NAIA on Sunday, April 17.
Okolo, who claimed to be into wine business in Brazil was arrested with a travelling bag containing different medicinal teabags, which were used to conceal 4.1kilogrammes of cocaine.
Same day, a Canada based Nigerian, Anigo Christian Godspower, was intercepted at the D-Arrival Hall of the MMIA, Ikeja, during an inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways from Sao Paulo via Doha to Lagos. When his luggage was searched, two blocks of cocaine with a total weight of 2.10kg were discovered.
The 52-year-old Anigo, who hails from Udi Local Council of Enugu State, claimed he operated an unregistered Bureau De Change business before delving into the illicit drug trade.
Babafemi stated that the bid by another cartel to export 950gramms of heroin concealed in the soles of lady’s foot wears through the MMIA cargo shed was equally foiled by anti-narcotic officers, who have so far arrested two suspects linked to the crime.
He said those arrested between April 16 and 17, in connection with an attempt to export the drug to Monrovia, Liberia include Idokoja Chukwurah and Patrick J Tochukwu.
Meanwhile, raids by NDLEA operatives in Kano, Kaduna, Benue and Akwa Ibom State have resulted in the seizure of no fewer than 88,734 doses of tramadol, pentazocine, diazepam and swinol.
In Kano, Aliyu Usman, 28, was arrested at Railway area of the state capital with 47,000 capsules of tramadol and 2,000 ampules of pentazocine injection on Tuesday, April 19, while Saminu Usman, 28, was nabbed with 24,710 tramadol tablets at Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano two days earlier.
In Benue, another dealer, Emeka Eze, was arrested at an NDLEA checkpoint at Adikpo, Kwande Local Council with 10,000 tramadol capsules and 900 tablets of swinol, while in Kaduna State, the duo of Raphael Daniel and David Musa were arrested at Mando park, Kaduna with 1kg of cocaine on Thursday, April 21.
A week after Muhammad Sani Ibrahim sent 12.1kg of cannabis from Lagos to Kaduna, operatives were able to trace and arrest him last Thursday and brought him to Kaduna after his consignment was intercepted.
Another dealer, Kamilu Ibrahim was also arrested same day at Kargi village in Kubau Local Council of Kaduna State with 10.6kg Cannabis Sativa, while Bashir Ibrahim was arrested on Friday, April 22, after his four consignments containing cannabis sativa weighing 44.6kg were intercepted three days earlier along Abuja-Kaduna express road.
In Akwa Ibom State, operatives arrested two female drug dealers: Eno-Obong Edet, 36, and Hossana Esema Ukpong, 28, with various quantities of rohypnol, diazepam, tramadol and cannabis, while a suspected fake security agent was arrested on Saturday, April 23, in Abuja, while moving 23.8kg cannabis from Lagos to Maiduguri in Borno State.
Pleased with the development, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), commended officers and men of the NAIA, MMIA, Kano, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom and FCT Commands of the agency for sustaining the heat on drug cartels.
He charged them and those in other commands across the country to remain vigilant and on the offensive until the last gramme of illicit drugs is taken away from the streets
