Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested an automobile spare parts dealer, Ejiofor Nnaemeka Chiwuzie, over an attempt to export consignments of heroin and loud, a strain of cannabis, concealed in LED rechargeable lamps and sofa metal legs through the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos.

Ejiofor was arrested on Tuesday, September 24, 2024, at the Trade Fair complex, Ojo area of Lagos, where he sells automobile spare parts, following the seizure of his cargo containing auto parts, rechargeable lamps, sofa metal legs, and electronics going to Liberia at the export shed of the Lagos airport. Concealed inside the LED lamps and sofa legs were 37 parcels of heroin weighing 1.10 kilograms and four blocks of loud with a total weight of 1.20 kilograms.

A swift follow-up operation led to the arrest of two freight agents and then Ejiofor, who sent the consignment. In the same vein, attempts by drug trafficking networks to export consignments of loud, tramadol pills, co-codamol tablets, pentazocine injection, dihydrocodeine, and promethazine tabs through some courier companies to the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Thailand, and Oman were foiled by NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operation and General Investigation attached to the logistics firms.

While 2.3 kilograms of loud hidden in a carton was going to Thailand, 749 grams of tramadol concealed in soles of locally made footwear were heading to Oman, with 60 ampoules of pentazocine injection going to the United States. No less than 200 pills of co-codamol were meant for Australia, while a total of 700 tablets of dihydrocodeine, promethazine, and tramadol, as well as 20 ampoules of pentazocine injection concealed in soles of footwear, were heading to the United Kingdom. Going to Canada were 58 ampoules of pentazocine injection hidden in female clothes.

All the seizures in the courier houses were made between Monday, September 23, and Tuesday, September 24, in Lagos.

Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday, September 25, arrested a wanted drug kingpin, Ajiboye Damilare Samuel, (a.k.a Na God) after 12 months of evading arrest, following the raid of his warehouse in Akala, Mushin area of Lagos, where a total of 1,101 kilograms of Ghana Loud, a strong strain of cannabis, was recovered on September 4, 2023.

The arrest of Ajiboye in a bank in Ogun State followed well-coordinated efforts by the Agency’s Directorate of Assets and Financial Investigation, which traced 20 bank accounts linked to the suspect and blocked them.

In like manner, NDLEA operatives in Lagos on Friday, September 27, took into custody a wanted community leader and Sarkin Yamma of Badagry, Alhaji Bashir Mohammed Talba, following the arrest of his two wives: Hauwa and Asma'u, and son, Sadat, as well as the seizure of a total of 226.2 kilograms of cannabis at their homes in Badagry on September 18.

In another operation in Lagos, no less than 9.7 kilograms of cannabis sativa and 50 liters of monkey tail, a fermented combo of cannabis and dry gin, were recovered from a suspect, Florence Moses, at Badore area of Ajah, Lekki, on Tuesday, September 24.

In Kogi, three suspects: Owolabi Dele, 42; Ayodele Monday, 40; and Olawale Ojo, 22, were arrested by NDLEA operatives along Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway while conveying 132 sacks of cannabis weighing 2,062 kilograms in a Mercedes container truck from Osun State to Dei Dei in Abuja.

Another suspect, Benedict Simire, 57, was arrested at Ayetoro road, Kabba, conveying 33.40 kilograms of the same psychoactive substance and a pump action gun with six cartridges on Wednesday, September 25.

On the same Wednesday, operatives of the Marine Command of NDLEA intercepted a boat bearing 71 bags of Ghana Loud weighing 2,982 kilograms along Alfa Beach, Lekki area of Lagos. Men of the Nigerian Customs Service Western Marine Command were on hand to support the NDLEA officers to recover the boat and exhibits after the two suspects in the boat dived into the water.