Drug trafficking: NDLEA arrests blind grandpa in Osun, leper in Kano

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a blind 67-year-old grandfather, Aliyu Adebiyi, in whose house they found 234kgs of cannabis at Sokoto village, Owena Ijesa, Atakumosa East Local Government Area of Osun State. The spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, said this on Sunday in Abuja.

According to him, the arrested suspect, in his statement, said a drug dealer kept the consignment with him for a fee of N6,000 per month and paid for three months upfront.

Similarly, a leper notorious for drug peddling, Haruna Abdullahi, 45, was arrested at Garko town, Kano State on Thursday 19th January while 2.2kgs of cannabis and various quantities of Diazepam and Exol were recovered from him.

Moreso, Babafemi also said that desperate efforts to bring into Nigeria 126.95kgs of cocaine and skunk concealed in herbal tea packs and imported vehicles by drug cartels from Brazil and Canada have again been thwarted at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA), Enugu and the Tincan Seaport in Lagos by NDLEA operatives.

“At the Enugu airport, a male passenger, Eze Christian Ikenna, 42, who boarded an Ethiopian Airline coming from Brazil via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was intercepted on arrival at the airport at 12:30 pm on Friday, 20th January. A search of his two bags revealed 19 big sachets which he claimed to contain herbal tea but were later found to be cocaine weighing 16.20kgs,” he said.

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In the same vein, a joint examination carried out on a container marked TCLU 7799237 from Montreal, Canada at Sifax Okota Bonded Terminal by NDLEA operatives attached to Tincan Command of the agency on Wednesday 18th January led to the discovery of 110.75kgs of cannabis Indica concealed in two of the four vehicles in the container; a 2011 Toyota Sienna and a 2011 Honda Pilot SUV.

Meanwhile, deliberate efforts to cut access to illicit opioids by the agency again paid off on Tuesday when a consignment of Tramadol which the NDLEA operatives have been tracking for some months was eventually traced to a warehouse at Greenfield Estate, Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos.

When the store was opened, a total of one million, six hundred and forty-five thousand, five hundred and sixty (1,645,560) pills of Tramadol ranging from 100mg, 200mg and 225mg were recovered.

Another 60,000 pills of Tramadol 250mg were equally recovered from a wanted drug dealer, Diugwu Alphonsus, in the Bariga area of the state the same day while raids carried out in the Akala area of Mushin on Wednesday 18th and Friday 20th January led to the recovery of 781.7kgs of cannabis.

Also, no less than 370kgs of cannabis were recovered from a sawmill at Ilale, Owo in Ondo State when operatives stormed the industrial plant following credible intelligence.