NDLEA intercepts N7bn opiods, arrests 2 businessmen, Canada-based nurse
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has intercepted opiods valued at over N7 billion at Apapa and Onne seaports.
This was contained in a statement issued on Sunday by Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA spokesman.
A total of 162,351 bottles of codeine based syrup were intercepted from two containers at the Apapa seaport in Lagos on October 15, while not less than 7.2 million pills of Royal 225mg Tapentadol and Carisoprodol worth N3.6 billion were seized from a container from India at Onne port in Rivers state on the same date.
“In the same container, 780 cartons of chlorphenamine containing 15.6 million pills of the opioid were also recovered.
“From two other watch-listed containers equally searched at the port in Onne, a total of 337,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup worth N2.359 billion were recovered on Tuesday and Thursday.
“This brings the total value of the seized Tapentadol, Carisoprodol and Codeine consignments at the two seaports to N7,095,457,000.”
Meanwhile, two businessmen, Ihejirika Okechukwu Emmanuel and Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory, as well as a Canada-based nurse, Usman Grace Khadijat Olami, have been arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos for attempting to import and export cocaine pellets and parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis.
“Ihejirika who frequents Thailand from where he claims to be importing fish into Nigeria was arrested on Tuesday 15th October 2024 while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Thailand via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“When he was taken for body scan, the result showed he ingested illicit drug which proved to be cocaine. As a result, he was placed under excretion observation during which he expelled five big egg size wraps of cocaine weighing 400grams.
“In his statement, the 51-year-old suspect confessed that he was to be paid upon successful delivery of the drug consignment in Thailand. He said he needed the money to boost his fish importation business.”
In the same vein, the NDLEA said its operatives at the Lagos airport on October 17 intercepted a 26-year-old businessman, Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory, coming from Brazil via Addis Ababa.
“His body scan revealed ingestion of illicit drug. When he was put under observation, he excreted a pellet of cocaine weighing 22 grams.
“He however confessed that he ingested 30 wraps of the illicit drug in Brazil but excreted 29 pellets in Addis Ababa, where he handed them over to another person.
“The suspect revealed that he was to be paid N2.5 million for trafficking the drug.”
Similarly, a Nigerian nurse based in Canada, Usman Grace Khadijat Olami, was on 4th October arrested at the Lagos airport during the inward clearance of Air France passengers from Toronto, Canada via Paris.
“During a search of her luggage, a total of 70 parcels of Canadian Loud, weighing 35.70kg were recovered from her.
“During her interview, she claimed she was in Nigeria to meet her boyfriend who instructed her to come with the large consignment of the highly sought-after synthetic cannabis.”
In Bauchi state, a suspect Sunday Jonathan Ogenyi, 33, was also arrested by NDLEA officers along Bauchi-Jos road with 76,600 tramadol pills concealed in false compartments of his Toyota Sienna vehicle marked Enugu JRV 341 ZY.
In Ondo state, the officers on Tuesday 15th October arrested three suspects, Goddey Obizuo, Samuel Aniete, and Kuffrey Aniete at Afo village with 672kg of Indian hemp.
The agency also raided Illushi forest in Esan South East LGA of Edo state, where 10,590.36kg cannabis spread on 4.236144 hectares of farmland was destroyed, and two suspects, Benson Upuoni, 65, and Sunday Nwaeboyi, 35, were arrested.
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday 15th October arrested one Andrew Joseph Anoriode with 3kg methamphetamine and 1.90kg cannabis along Lagos – Ibadan expressway while 241kg of same substance was recovered at Gbaji, Badagry area of the state.
“A suspected meth cook, Agbeiboh Oscar, was nabbed same Tuesday at Abule Osun with 265grams of methamphetamine and different quantities of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of methamphetamine and others,” the statement added.
It said that NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), has hailed the operational successes and the efforts being made by personnel nationwide to prevent the circulation of illicit drugs in the country.
