Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the weekend disrupted the activities of a major cocaine syndicate in Lagos following the arrest of a 56-year-old trafficker, Lawal Lateef Oyenuga.
The suspect who was on a mission to deliver 400grammes of the class A drug concealed in a pair of palm sandals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and the swift follow-up arrest of a wanted notorious kingpin, Wasiu Sanni Gbolahan, popularly known as ‘Teacher’, who recruits mules for the cartel.
Spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, said on Sunday in Abuja that NDLEA operatives attached to the screening point of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos had on November 24th inter-cepted Lawal Lateef Oyenuga with a pair of black palm sandals packed in the luggage he was going with to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airways flight.
“A thorough examination of the sandals revealed they were used to conceal two parcels of cocaine weighing 400 grammes. This is barely a week after a 56-year-old widow and mother of four, Mrs Ajisegiri Kehinde Sidika, was arrested at the airport over her attempt to traffic 400 grammes of cocaine concealed in her footwear to Makkah, Saudi Arabia, on board a Qatar Airways flight,” Babafemi said.
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In his statement, Oyenuga claimed he was recruited to traffic the drug by Wasiu Sanni Gbolahan, popularly known as Teacher, and that he was first given some pellets of cocaine to swallow but when he couldn’t do that, then he was given the ones concealed in the palm sandals.
He said he resorted to the criminal trade to raise money to pay an examination fee for his daughter who is in Senior Secondary School class 3.
The Agency’s database reveals Wasiu Sanni (Teacher) has been linked to some previous attempts to traffic cocaine to Saudi Arabia and Dubai, UAE.
He was earlier named as the one who recruited a BRT driver, Bolajoko Muyiwa Babalola, for Lagos socialite and owner of Adekaz Hotels, Alhaji Ademola Afolabi Kazeem (a.k.a Alhaji Abdallah Kazeem Muhammed) to traffic drugs to Dubai.
Bolajoko was arrested on 27th June this year while taking 900 grams of cocaine to Dubai while Ademola Kazeem was nabbed five months later on Thursday 10th November, barely 10 days after he was declared wanted by NDLEA.
A follow up operation in the early hours of Friday 25th November led to the arrest of the kingpin, Teacher, who spe-cialises in recruiting mules for drug barons in Lagos and its environs at his residence located in Ikorodu area of La-gos. The 64-year-old Wasiu Sanni Gbolahan is a housing and property agent, with seven children and four wives, one of whom is now late.
In another follow up operation to the seizure of 1.10kg cannabis concealed in bottles of body cream going to Dubai on 9th September, the actual owner of the consignment, Wordu Hopewell Chukwuemeka, who runs a boutique business in Port Harcourt, Rivers State was arrested in the Garden City on Thursday 24th November.
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