The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA says it has busted a trans-border drug trafficking syndicate, and arrested four suspected members in an intelligence led operation
Director, Media and Advocacy NDLEA Femi Babafemi in a release said during the operations, multi million naira worth of tramadol pills concealed in the bumper and false bottom of Sienna buses heading to border towns were recovered.
Babafemi further disclosed that following weeks of intelligence and surveillance operations by operatives of the Directorate of Intelligence in NDLEA, a Sienna bus marked ABJ 452 HG was intercepted at Nasarawa- Toto road, Keffi, Nasarawa state on Tuesday 27th January 2025 alongside two suspects: Zahradeen Adamu, 27 and Abubakar Usman, 44, arrested in the vehicle coming from Onitsha, Anambra state enroute Yola, Adamawa state.
During a search of the two vehicles, specially constructed steel compartments were discovered after the removal of the back bumper where a total of 190, 960 pills of tramadol were concealed and, in the space, designed to house the spare tyre of the vehicles.
He said investigations revealed that an Onitsha, Anambra state-based dealer, Kingsley Mbaeri was the supplier of the seized tramadol consignment while a swift follow up operation led to the arrest of Mbaeri at his Uga Street, Onitsha home on 29th January.
Two vehicles: a Toyota Corolla car marked FGG 948 MF and a Toyota Sienna bus marked GWA 23 HH were recovered from his house.
In another interdiction, NDLEA Intelligence Department intercepted a commercial bus coming from Onitsha, Anambra State at Abaji checkpoint, FCT Abuja on 4th February while a passenger in the bus, Chimezie Henry Ojingwa, 32, carrying motor spare parts in a black bag was arrested, with 404.47grams of methamphetamine; 506.49grams of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis and 262.32grams of dimethyl sulfone, a precursor substance for mixing meth, all of which were concealed in the motor parts were recovered.
In Cross River state, NDLEA officers on patrol along Ogoja -Abakaliki road, Yahe, on Thursday 13th February intercepted 170,000 pills of tramadol in a truck driven by Paul Chukwudi, 31, while operatives at the Apapa seaport in Lagos on Tuesday 11th February recovered 85,400 bottles of codeine-based syrup in a container imported from India.
The NDLEA also revealed that a notorious drug joint at Iloda street, Ikole-Ekiti where they arrested three suspects, with a total of 83 kilograms of skunk recovered from them.
Also, in Lagos, 28-year-old Samiat Olabisi Yussuf was arrested on Saturday 15th February by the operatives during a raid of her Lekki home where 169.5 litres of nitrous oxide popularly known as laughing gas and 111grams of Loud were recovered.
Not less than 132.84 kilograms of skunk were recovered from two suspects: Ibrahim Usman, 40, and Solomon James, 40, in Taraba.
The NDLEA said it’s Commands continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization lectures and advocacy visits to worship centres, schools, workplaces, palaces of traditional rulers and communities all through the past week.
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