In a series of New Year operations, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has achieved significant breakthroughs, intercepting illegal substances and apprehending individuals involved in illicit activities across various states in Nigeria.
At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos on New Year’s Day, NDLEA operatives seized a consignment of ‘Colorado,’ an extremely potent strain of cannabis concealed in boxing kits imported from the United States. The agency conducted a weeklong intelligence-led operation, resulting in the arrest of Olorunfunmi Olakunle, a 38-year-old distributor of the dangerous psychoactive substance in Lagos. The intercepted shipment, marked as boxing kits, had a total weight of 1.80 kilograms.
In Kaduna, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun states, NDLEA operatives arrested twelve suspects in various interdiction operations. Notably, a 28-year-old female, Bilkisu Suleman, topped the list. She was apprehended on the Zaria-Kano expressway with 249 rounds of 7.62 mm live ammunition concealed in her lady’s handbag. Suleman was en route to deliver the ammunition to an identified bandit in Kakumi village, Katsina State.
In Lagos, Francis Suru, 37, was transferred to the NDLEA Lagos State Command along with 63 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud, a strain of cannabis, weighing 2,104.2 kilograms. The suspect and the drug exhibits were initially intercepted close to the gate of the military cantonment in Bonny Camp, Victoria Island, on December 12, 2023.
Additionally, NDLEA operatives in Niger State intercepted a J5 bus along Suleja-Kaduna road, discovering twenty-three bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5 kilograms. Two suspects, Umar Musa, 26, and Isachiru Abubakar, were arrested in connection with the seizure.
In other operations, a female drug trafficker, Queen Onyema, 27, was arrested on a commercial bus along the Okene-Lokoja expressway with 12 compressed blocks of cannabis weighing 4.6 kilograms and 0.046 kilograms of designer drugs. Another suspect, Mubarak Sani, 20, was nabbed in Kano with 445.9 kilograms of the same psychoactive substance.
In Borno, four suspects were arrested with 60 kilograms of cannabis, while in Osun, NDLEA operatives intercepted a consignment of illicit drugs sent from Lagos to Osogbo. Ibrahim Olawale, 43, was arrested, and the recovered drugs included cannabis sativa (10.8kg), Loud (150 grams), Colorado (19 grams), and Molly (5 grams), totaling 10.974 kilograms.
NDLEA Commands nationwide also continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization lectures in schools, communities, workplaces, and other locations.
Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Mohamed Marwa, commended the successful operations, urging officers across all formations to remain vigilant and intensify efforts in drug demand reduction and supply reduction throughout the new year.
