THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says its operatives have arrested a Vietnam-bound businessman, Paul Okwuy Mbadugha, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja after he tested positive for ingestion of cocaine.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday and made available to Channels Television.
He said that the 54-year-old suspect was intercepted at the boarding gate of the Abuja airport on Monday, August 12, 2024, during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam via Doha.
According to Babafemi, Mbadugha excreted a total of 88 wraps of the illicit drug with a gross weight of 1.710 kilograms after four days under excretion observation.
In his statement, the suspect was said to have claimed that he’s a Lagos-based businessman and was given the cocaine pellets to swallow by a friend in Isolo area of the state for onward delivery in Vietnam for a fee of $2,000.
In the same vein, NDLEA said its officers at the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos, have intercepted a shipment of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 800 grams concealed in noodles going to Congo.
A follow-up operation at the Alaba International Market, Ojo area of Lagos led to the arrest of the sender of the consignment, Nnamani Sunday Sunny, who deals in GSM handsets.
Meanwhile, a large consignment of Loud imported from Canada has been recovered by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport. A suspect, Desalu Taophic Temitope, who arrived on board an Air France flight with six boxes was arrested by anti-narcotic officers during a joint examination by security agencies at the arrival hall.
The NDLEA statement further read, “A total of 65.80 kilograms of the psychoactive substance were recovered from four of the six suitcases. In his statement, Desalu said he and an accomplice currently at large were promised $10,000 upon successful delivery of the shipment in Lagos.
“No less than Eight Hundred and Ninety-Two Thousand Four Hundred (892,400) bottles of codeine-based syrup worth Six Billion Two Hundred and Forty-Six Million Eight Hundred Thousand Naira (N6,246,800,000.00) in street value were recovered from five containers by NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers state during a joint examination of the containers with men of the Nigeria Customs and other port stakeholders on Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th August 2024.
“The bottles of the opioid were packed in 5,337 cartons with a gross weight of 133,860 kilograms and shipped in five containers from India.
“In Ekiti State, NDLEA operatives supported by men of the Nigerian Army and other security agencies as well as community youths on Wednesday 14th August raided the Ise forest reserve, Saalaja camp, Ise-Ekiti, where 21,800 kilograms of cannabis sativa on 20 hectares of farmland were destroyed.
“The following day, Thursday 15th August, NDLEA officers on patrol along Onitsha- Enugu road in Enugu intercepted a Sienna bus marked SKA-24 AG from which 200.2kg of cannabis was recovered and the driver, Okoro Emmanuel, 41, arrested.
“While the duo of Joseph Apeh, 45, and Diamond Nnabuike, 21, were arrested with 145,400 pills of tramadol on Monday 12th August at Gadar Tamburawa, area of Kano, NDLEA operatives in Ogun state on Tuesday 13th August arrested 70-year-old Fidelis Egede and three others: Samuel Sylvanus, 31; Jato Samson, 33; and Francis Blessing, 28, when a cannabis plantation on six hectares was raided at Alaka village.
“In Abuja, NDLEA officers on patrol along Kwali-Gwagwalada expressway on Tuesday 13th August intercepted a truck from which 30,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection were recovered and three suspects: Ifeanyi Sunday, Jeremiah Paul and Edet Ubokobong arrested.
“While operatives in Niger state on Thursday 15th August arrested Ifeanyi Chukwueze in Kontagora town with 28, 500 pills of tramadol concealed in a loudspeaker, their counterparts in Kogi state on Wednesday 14th August nabbed Abba Yakubu with 40,000 pills of the same opioid heading to Kontagora. Another suspect, Tochukwu Onah, 39, was arrested by NDLEA officers at Paparanda, Lokoja on Thursday 15th August, 2024, with 1,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection.”