Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have seized 8,268.2311 kilgrammes (kg) of illicit drugs, including cocaine, heroin, tramadol, methamphetamine and skunk, in a week-long coordinated raids in Ondo, Akwa Ibom, Adamawa, Enugu, Bauchi, Edo and Anambra states.
At least 15 drug dealers, including a woman on a wheelchair, were arrested during the raids.
The spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday in Abuja, said the operations began on Sunday, August 1, and lasted till Saturday August 7, 2021, in the seven states.
Babafemi explained that, “The bulk of the seized drugs were recovered in Ondo and Edo states. In Akure, the Ondo State capital, a 27-year-old Omokayode Adedayo was on Friday, 6th August, arrested along Oda Road, Akure South Local Government Area, with a cocktail of illicit substances, including cannabis sativa, cocaine, methamphetamine, tramadol, swinol and ‘designer drug’.
“The previous day, Thursday, 5th August, men of the Nigerian Army intercepted 1,025kg of cannabis in a Toyota Sequoia numbered FST 169 BW and a Toyota Sienna with APP 918 FA as registration number at a checkpoint in Isua Akoko. Two fake police officers; Stephen Sunday and Eze Ezenwa, were also arrested with 575kg of cannabis being conveyed in a Sienna bus with a fake police registration number NPF 1651D.”
He said the suspects and exhibits were handed over to the Ondo State Command of NDLEA along with a cash exhibit of N148,300.
He further said the operatives of the Ondo command also raided Egbeta community, a border town between Ondo and Edo, where 6,332kg of cannabis sativa was recovered and two suspects; Emeka Ossai and Raphael Henry, arrested.
According to the spokesman, 64.903kg of illicit drugs, including 1.2031kg of crack cocaine from one 26-year-old Nwoye Ogbonna Solomon were recovered in Akwa Ibom.
Babafemi said, “In Adamawa State, a drug dealer, Ikechukwu Onuh, was arrested at Jimeta-Yola on Thursday, 5th August, with 14.400kg of tramadol packaged as diclofenac to evade detection; while in Enugu, a total of 19.08kg of cocaine and skunk was recovered from three suspects, including a 35-year-old cripple, Iyiogwe Chinenye, and one 25-year-old Aja Chidi David.”
He added that cocaine and heroin were also seized from an 18-year-old drug dealer, Jude Chinedu, at Inland Town in Onitsha, Anambra State, while 59.3kg of a psychotropic substance, pentazocine, was intercepted in a bus from Jos, Plateau State to Bauchi with the courier arrested, and over 148.808kg of different variants of skunk, some of which were meant for students of Igbinendon University, Okada and Edo State Polytechnic, Usen, were recovered from two dealers; Sunday Ojodale Oguche (21) and Endurance Ehigie (23) on Wednesday, August 4.
Meanwhile, different quantities of tramadol, methamphetamine and skunk going to the UK, Australia, New Zealand and UAE were intercepted in two courier firms in Lagos by narcotic officers of the Directorate of Operation and General Investigation (DOGI) of the agency.
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