Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have apprehended an alleged trans-border drug dealer, ‘Pastor’ Anietie Okon Effiong, for being in possession of three drums of crystal methamphetamine, locally called mkpuru mmiri.
The illicit drug was believed to have been imported from India.
Spokesman for the NDLEA, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said in a statement that The consignment weighing 90 kilograms and loaded into a commercial bus marked RSH 691XC at Ojuelegba in Lagos was intercepted during a stop and search operation along Umuahia – Ikot Ekpene highway on Saturday, August 6, 2022.
He said the drug packed 30kg in each drum was meant for Effiong who was arrested in a follow-up operation at Oron beach in Oron local government area of Akwa Ibom State.
The recovered Meth drums were meant for onward delivery to Cameroon.
Babafemi said the arrest came on the heels of four seizures of the same illicit substance weighing 4.074kg going to Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines with a 3kg cannabis sativa heading to Dubai at some courier companies in Lagos.
The consignments were concealed in body cream, hot burner iron and beads.
Meanwhile in Sokoto, the NDLEA spokesman said a 90-year-old retired soldier, Usman Adamu was arrested on Wednesday in Mailalle, Sabon Birni LGA for supplying bandits with illicit drugs.
At the time of his arrest, the suspect was caught with 5.1kg cannabis sativa.
At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, a 37-year-old Edo State indigene, who resides in Italy, Solo Osamede was arrested for ingesting 41 wraps of heroin.
He was picked up and taken into custody for excretion while attempting to board a Turkish Airline flight to Milan, Italy via Istanbul, Turkey on 30th July.
Babafemi said the illicit drug was recovered in four excretions which the suspect completed on 1st August.
Similarly, he said a female passenger Jatau Lydia Lami was arrested at the Lagos airport for attempting to export 1,700 tablets of Tramadol 225mg concealed in her luggage to Istanbul, Turkey via a Turkish Airline flight on Sunday 31st July.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect, the mother of three hails from Zango Kataf local government area of Kaduna State and lives in Istanbul, Turkey with her family.
She blamed her action on pressure to raise N5 million ransom to free her mother from the captivity of bandits who kidnapped her since June.
Also at the SAHCO export shed of the airport, attempts by some freight agents to export two consignments of cannabis in a consolidated cargo to Dubai, UAE on Thursday 4th August, were thwarted by NDLEA operatives who arrested two of them in follow-up operations.
In Zamfara, NDLEA operatives on Thursday, intercepted a truck from Benin, Edo State en route to Sokoto with 50,000 tablets of Diazepam owned by a drug dealer, Umaru Attahiru, while in Kogi, 14 sacks containing 1,376 bottles of codeine-based syrup weighing 190.4kg were seized along Okene-Abuja highway on Wednesday.
The exhibits were found in a delivery bus coming from Onitsha, Anambra and heading to Abuja. Follow up operation in Abuja the same day led to the arrest of Jude Ikenna and Ozoemene Cornelius while in Kaduna, four suspects, Sulaiman Rabi’u; Sanusi Sha’aibu; Ma’aruf Habibu and Christian Nnachor, were arrested in Zaria, Tafa and Romi Kaduna with 106, 770 tablets of Tramadol 225mg, Diazepam, Exol-5 and 100 bottles of codeine cough syrup.
In Enugu, 143.5kg cannabis sativa was recovered from locked up stores in new market area of the state capital on Saturday and in Delta, a suspect, Ike Okparachi, was arrested at Abraka Junction, Asaba with 10,550 tablets of Tramadol 225mg; Swinol; Rohypnol; and 3,105 bottles of codeine syrup as well as 69grams of Molly.
