A major illicit drug kingpin, Okeke Chijioke, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA as 548,000 tablets of Tramadol branded as Tarkadol were recovered from his warehouse at 3 Atunya street, Maryland estate, Nkwelle, Oyi local government area of the state in Anambra.

After Okeke’s arrest, credible intelligence and surveillance, confirmed that he stocked his warehouse with the illicit drug.

After the search of his warehouse, 548,000 tablets of Tarkadol weighing 302.500 kilograms were recovered.

The suspect accepted ownership of the substance recovered.

Preliminary investigation has established that Tarkadol is a brand of Tramadol that has just been introduced into the market to evade attention.

A statement by Femi Babafemi, Director of Media and Advocacy said, “The substance has also tested positive to amphetamine”.

“The drug was equally labeled 100mg pain reliever on its packs to avoid scrutiny, while laboratory tests confirmed it’s a 225mg drug”.

It was further discovered that the drug was manufactured in India and smuggled into Nigeria without NAFDAC number or certification.

During the search on the warehouse, a double barrel pump gun with 3 live cartridges, which license expired since 2019, was also discovered and recovered.

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This is even as operatives of the Benue state command of the Agency on road patrol in Apir village on 14th July intercepted and seized 28,400 capsules of tramadol from one Dankawu Madaki, who hails from Misah LG, Bauchi state.

In a related development, a notorious interstate drug dealer, Godiya Linus, based in Taraba but supplies narcotics to dealers in Adamawa has been arrested in the Numan area of the state.

Godiya, an ex-convict, was in jail between 2012 and 2018 following his conviction on drug related charges.

Another drug dealer, Mohammed Ali had earlier been arrested on 10th July with 1.150kg of diazepam in Numan.

A follow up operation led to the arrest of Godiya who supplied Ali, while investigation has since revealed that he’s based in Mayolope village in Lau local government area of Taraba, from where he supplies Jambutu park in Yola and other parts of Numan, using an unregistered boxer motorcycle for distribution.

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