A drug kingpin wanted for attempts to ship illicit drug consignments to the United Kingdom tops the list of arrests made by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency through interdiction operations that led to the seizure of four tons of illicit substances in the past week.
The spokesperson for the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi revealed that the baron, Obiorah Chigozie has been on the NDLEA’s wanted list since September 15, 2023, when a consignment of 1.500kg skunk concealed in flour going to London, UK was intercepted at the SAHCO export shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos, and his freight agent, Nworah Adaugo arrested.
“Convinced that the 1.500kg consignment had sailed through, Obiorah walked into the agency’s dragnet on Thursday, September 28, when he personally brought another tranche of 2.00kg concealed in cartons to the airport for shipment to the UK. In his interview, Obiorah claimed he was into shoe sales in Lagos before venturing into the illicit drug business,” Babafemi added.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives attached to the Federal Capital Territory Command, on Friday, September 29, intercepted a container truck with registration number BD G41 XM coming from Lagos to Kano at the Gwagwalada area of the FCT.
No less than 1,188 kilogrammes of skunk loaded at Owo, Ondo State, and hidden under cartons of toothpaste were recovered from the truck, and its driver, Amafan Fattison, 28, was arrested.
In the same vein, NDLEA officers in Bayelsa state on Wednesday, September 27, seized 432kgs of the same substance from an abandoned J5 bus along Saipem road, Opolo, Yenagoa. The vehicle was equally recovered from the scene for further investigation.
Babafemi further noted that “In Kano, a septuagenarian, Ado Mai Unguwa, 70, was arrested on Saturday, September 30 with 143.2kgs skunk in Dundee village, Tofa LGA, while operatives in Enugu same day recovered 110.6kgs of same substance from a locked-up shop at Aria new market.
“Operatives in Lagos also on Saturday, September 30 stormed the notorious Idi-Oro drug enclave in Mushin where they seized 212.5kgs of cannabis sativa belonging to a wanted drug lord.
“This is even as NDLEA officers in Kwara state recovered 104kgs of skunk from a Toyota Camry car in the Offa area of the state, while a Chadian, Mohammed Ibrahim, 25, was nabbed at Mafa checkpoint, Borno state with 11.8kgs of same substance on Monday, September 25,”
Meanwhile, in Plateau, officers of the state police command in the spirit of inter-agency collaboration transferred four suspects – Yusuf Akim, Frank Gah, Jackson Ejeh, and Joseph Utsu, alongside 1,978kgs cannabis recovered from them to the state command of the NDLEA, while in Cross River, operatives on Monday, September 25 seized 40,000 ampules of pentazocine injection from two suspects – Fajulugbe Adeshola Temitayo, 35, and Nnaorji Agwe Solomon, 54, at Mobil by MCC road, Calabar.
Also in Kogi state, NDLEA officers on Wednesday, September 27, arrested a suspect, Ifeanyi Odoh, 25, with 59,867 pills of opioids including Tramadol and 4.03kgs cannabis sativa at the Idah area of the state.
