The Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (rtd), has announced the arrest of 22 suspects in major operations conducted across Osun, Lagos, Edo, Ogun, Taraba, Adamawa, Nasarawa, and Kwara States.
The Agency recovered a total of $11,600, £2,000, €2,200, and 50 Canadian dollars from a wanted drug baron, 42-year-old Frank Chijioke Ibemesi (alias Chisco Bee), at his Daisy Garden Hotel on Ago Palace Way, Lagos, during the raid.
According to the statement signed by the Director of Media and Advocacy, Mr Femi Babafemi, Ibemesi was taken to his warehouse at Pius Ezeobi Street, where operatives recovered “42 jumbo bags, four cartons of Loud totalling 1,762.8kg and seized $11,600, £2,000, €2,200 and 50 Canadian dollars.”
Babafemi noted that Ibemesi’s arrest was one out of many, as a cumulative drug haul recorded across the operations stood at 15,652.815 kilograms.
Babafemi, also confirmed that operatives recovered 396,000 tramadol capsules and other illicit pills.
According to the NDLEA, the suspects deployed several smuggling methods including forest-loading operations, concealment inside luxury vehicles, the use of modified jerrycans, commercial buses, and warehousing of drugs inside hotels and residential facilities.
Providing further details, Babafemi said NDLEA operatives on Tuesday, 11 November, prevented a drug syndicate from loading and distributing 11,135kg of processed skunk at Orita-Apeje, Araromi-Okeodo forest reserve in Ife South LGA of Osun State.
After days of surveillance, he said officers stormed the forest, seized two trucks — a Volvo (WWR 29 XA) and a Mercedes (AWK 713 YZ) — and arrested seven suspects identified as “Lucky Abiodun, Julius Amos, Victor Ngbikili, Sunday Oduegwu, Ibrahim Akanni, Eze Godstime, and Fred Ifeanyichukwu”.
On Wednesday, 12 November, NDLEA officers in Kwara State intercepted a commercial bus marked KJA 657CY at Eiyenkonrin, Ilorin, where they discovered 20 blocks of skunk concealed inside a 50-litre jerry can.
The driver, Ibrahim Bello, was arrested.
The raid on Thursday, 13 November, led to the recovery of 184.1kg of skunk along a bush path at Oza/Igbanke road in Orhionmwon LGA of Edo State.
That same day in Kwara State, officers intercepted a truck marked T-0262KT along the Ilorin–Jebba expressway, seizing 197 blocks of skunk weighing 78.565kg and 155 cartons of rubber solutions. The driver, Umar Yakubu, was taken into custody.
On Friday, 14 November, NDLEA operatives in Edo State recovered 672kg of skunk from Utese forest in Ovia North East LGA. Another 494 kilograms was found inside a Mercedes-Benz (DE311BEN) along Benin–Akure road, where officers arrested 45-year-old Felix Edah. A separate patrol arrested 51-year-old Lucky Abagha with 552kg in another Mercedes-Benz marked JJJ 56 JW.
Also on 14 November, four suspects — Micheal Okoh, Offor Agada, Raphael Nkemjika and Nwabueze Franklin — were arrested along the Ijebu-Ode expressway in Ogun State with 68kg of skunk and 3.150kg of methamphetamine.
In Taraba State that same day, NDLEA officers arrested 50-year-old Danjuma Tukura with 172kg of skunk at Sunkani in Ardo Kola LGA, while 24-year-old Wisdom Titus was caught with 84kg in Takum.
Still on 14 November, operatives at Aliyu Mustapha International Airport, Yola, in Adamawa State arrested 50-year-old Ahmed Isyaku Nda with 396,000 capsules of tramadol.
In Nasarawa State, 785kg of skunk was evacuated from the warehouse of a fleeing drug dealer at Asob Maraba Karu.
Also on 14 November, NDLEA officers in Lagos arrested two suspects — Jamiu Kunle Kardoso and Oriyomi Waliu — with 130 pouches of Canadian Loud weighing 65.150kg in Surulere, while Taofeek Moraina was arrested with 141kg of Ghana Loud at Otto, Oyingbo.
Marwa commended the officers and men of the Special Operations Unit and the Osun, Lagos, Edo, Ogun, Taraba, Adamawa, Nasarawa and Kwara Commands for their diligence and urged them to sustain the balanced nationwide drug control operations.
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