…AS PHONE CHARGERS SERVES AS PURVEYOR OF ILLICIT DRUGS
A businesswoman, Okolonkwo Ebere Theresa has been arrested and taken into custody after Aviation Security Officers of FAAN in collaboration with NDLEA operatives attached to the screening point of terminal 2 of the Lagos airport.
She was arrested for concealing illicit drug in her underwear while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Doha, Qatar.
After a thorough search, two big parcels of white crystalline substance that later tested positive to methamphetamine with a gross weight of 1.40 kilograms were recovered from her butt pad underwear.
During preliminary interview with Ebere, she claimed she trades in used clothing and also operates a POS business in Enugu where she was recruited into the illicit drug business.
At the NAHCO export shed of the Lagos airport, NDLEA operatives on Monday 15th September intercepted a consignment of food items used to conceal 40 wraps of methamphetamine with a total weight of 2.30 kilograms heading to Hong Kong via Turkish Airlines.
A 59-year-old suspect, Umelo Ifeanyi Venatus, who presented the consignment as part of a consolidated cargo, has been taken into custody.
Another consignment of illicit drug packaged for Europe was intercepted by NDLEA operatives at a courier company in Lagos on Thursday 18th September.
During a thorough examination of the shipment, seven pieces of phone charger going to New Zealand were found to contain 257 grams of cocaine.
In Adamawa, no fewer than 233,800 pills of tramadol were recovered by NDLEA operatives in three raids with two suspects arrested in parts of the state. A total of 195,600 pills of the opioid were recovered from an abandoned Toyota Sienna vehicle in Mayo Belwa area of Yola South on Wednesday 17th September, while a suspect Rita Zira was nabbed in Jambutu area of Jimeta Yola with 27,900 pills of tramadol discovered in her bedroom.
Another suspect, Halilu Abubakar, 22, was arrested with 10,300 pills of same substance by NDLEA officers at Namtari checkpoint, Yola on Saturday 20th September.
No less than 109 bags of skunk, a strain of cannabis, weighing 1,099.4 kilograms were seized from a suspect Hammed Danladi Aliyu, 40, by NDLEA operatives supported by members of the Community Protection Guards (CPG) along Gummi-Daki Takwas road, Zamfara state while conveying the consignment in a Mitsubishi Canter truck marked LRN 568XB to a village called Company in Gummi LGA on Saturday 20th September.
While two suspects: Babangida Usman and Ismail Ibrahim were arrested with 14, 000 capsules of tramadol along Damaturu-Potiskum road, Yobe state, NDLEA operatives in Taraba on Wednesday 17th September 17 nabbed Anas Hamisu, 28, with three sacks of skunk that weighed 25.525kg, at Garba-Chede, Bali LGA.
In Edo state, two cannabis farms on 4.532025 hectares located at Atororo forest in Owan West LGA with an estimated yield of 11,330.0625kg were on Wednesday 17th September destroyed by NDLEA officers who also recovered eleven bags of processed skunk and seeds weighing 148kg.
Suspects arrested at the plantations include: Mathew Onoja, 56; Moses Thomas Male, 18; and Friday Uchenjin, 38.
With the same vigour, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization activities to schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week.
These include: WADA sensitization lecture to students and staff of Sultan Abdulrahman College of Health Technology, Gwadabawa, Sokoto; Sarki Abdul Primary School, Dankama border town, Katsina; Government Secondary School, Gwaram, Jigawa; St. Mary Junior Secondary School, North Bank Makurdi, Benue; and Ummulkhair Islamiyya, Tudun Wada, Kano, while Zone 11 Command of NDLEA paid a WADA advocacy visit to Enugu State First Lady Mrs. Nkechinyere Mbah, among others.
“These arrests and seizures represent a significant milestone in our determined effort to dismantle drug trafficking organizations operating in Nigeria and around the world, prioritizing those bent on targeting our productive youth population with illicit substances until they’re no longer able to inflict harm on our communities or misrepresent our country’s image in the global space”, said the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) while commending the officers and men of MMIA, DOGI, Adamawa, Zamfara, Edo, Taraba, and Yobe Commands for the various successful operations. He enjoined them and their colleagues across the country to continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the drug control efforts of the Agency.
About The Author
