Agency recovers more than 1.3 million opioid pills and six tonnes of high-potency cannabis in operations from Lagos to Gombe, and detains two teenagers found with locally made assault rifles
Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted illicit drugs with a combined street value of more than ₦3.4 billion, including more than 1.3 million tramadol and other opioid pills and about 6,000 kilograms of potent cannabis, in co-ordinated operations across Lagos, Edo, Niger, Delta, Ondo, Gombe, Imo and the Federal Capital Territory.
The week’s most valuable single haul was 1,200 parcels of Canadian Loud a high-potency strain of cannabis weighing 603.75kg and valued at ₦1.81 billion, hidden inside a container that arrived at Tin Can Island Port in Lagos from Montreal. Officers also arrested a man they say had been posing as a senior police officer to ferry drugs through checkpoints, a mechanic accused of using his workshop as a store, and three young men found with two locally fabricated AK-47 rifles, a pistol and ammunition.
Container from Canada hidden in two minivans
A 40-foot container shipped from Montreal arrived at Tin Can Island on 12 September and was placed under surveillance on the basis of intelligence. On Wednesday 16 September NDLEA officers carried out a joint physical examination with the Nigeria Customs Service and other agencies.
Inside they found two Toyota Sienna vehicles packed with 31 large black bags. The bags contained the 1,200 parcels of Canadian Loud. The agency described the strain as a synthetic, high-potency form of cannabis that has featured in several large port seizures this year.
‘Deputy superintendent’ with a forged identity card
The same day, officers stopped a silver Toyota Sienna on the Benin–Onitsha expressway in Asaba, Delta State. They say 49-year-old Innocent Ekpe had 292.48kg of skunk concealed in the vehicle.
Investigators allege that Ekpe had for some time passed himself off as Godwin Emeka, a deputy superintendent of police, using a forged identity card to avoid searches at checkpoints. A 39-year-old accomplice, Nduka Joseph, was arrested with him.
Workshop used as a drugs store
In Benin City, Edo State, officers acting on intelligence raided a premises on Agbor Road and arrested 45-year-old Matthew Ossai. The agency says he used an auto-repair workshop as cover to store 48kg of Canadian Loud and 152 grams of methamphetamine, kept in a metal box.
More than a million pills on the Abuja road
On Friday 18 September, officers on the Abaji Abuja highway arrested Aminu Isyaku, 23, and Jamilu Habibu, 25. Eight sacks in their possession contained more than 1.1 million assorted tramadol tablets and capsules, codeine syrup, methamphetamine and Exol tablets. The consignment was said to be travelling from Onitsha in Anambra State to Mararaba in Nasarawa State.
In Lagos the same day, Onyeka Ofor was arrested at his home in Aguda, Surulere, with 48,900 tramadol 225mg pills. Officers also intercepted seven cartons of cannabis sativa weighing 59kg at a logistics firm and took Luke Ugokwe into custody.
A day earlier, Ibrahim Hudu, 43, was arrested at Apongbon with 998.38kg of nitrous oxide the industrial gas increasingly abused as a recreational inhalant.
In Gombe, officers recovered 154,480 tramadol capsules from Sabi’u Umar, 27, arrested in the Barunde area, and Hassana Muhammad, 19, arrested at Gombe main market, both on 18 September.
Teenagers found with assault rifles
On Tuesday 15 September a patrol on the Abuja Kaduna expressway at Chachi, in Tafa local government area of Niger State, stopped three young suspects: Bashir Usman, 20, and two 18-year-olds, Abubakar Nuhu and Abdulrahman Abdulwahab.
Concealed in a black travel bag, officers say, were two locally fabricated AK-47 rifles with a magazine, a locally made pistol with a magazine, and nine rounds of 9mm ammunition. The agency presented the find as part of the same week of enforcement rather than a separate firearms operation, underlining the overlap between drug routes and armed trafficking.
Farm destroyed in Ondo forest
In Imo State on 18 September, Ifesinachi Godwin, 25, was arrested on the Owerri–Onitsha road with 43.85kg of skunk.
Three days earlier, in the Ita-Ogbolu forest in Ondo State, officers raided a two-hectare cannabis plantation, destroyed 5,000kg of skunk and arrested Blessing Effiong, Saviour Peter, David Friday Sunday and Ability Peter Sunday. About 48kg of dry and fresh cannabis was retained as evidence.
Prevention work continues alongside the raids
Commands across the country also continued War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) lectures in schools and communities, including St Ferdinand School in Ogbomoso, Unizik Secondary School in Awka, Scholars Nursery and Primary School in Epe, and the Government Technical Training School in Jalingo. The Delta Ports command paid an advocacy visit to the Pere Ama-Okosu of Ogbe-Ijoh Warri Kingdom, King Couple Mackson Oromoni Mobene III.
Marwa urges officers to keep the balance
NDLEA chairman and chief executive, Brigadier-General Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), commended officers in Lagos, Tin Can, Edo, Niger, Delta, Ondo, Gombe, Imo and the FCT for what he called a professional, intelligence-led week of work. He told them to maintain the agency’s “balanced approach” interdiction on the one hand and public education on the other.
The suspects remain in custody pending further investigation and prosecution. The seizures have not yet been tested in court; the accounts above are those given by the agency in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by its director of media and advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
By A. Ikechukwu
