Michael Olugbode in Abuja
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have intercepted various quantities of ephedrine, skunk and nitrous oxide, popularly known as laughing gas concealed in semovita packs and dry pepper being shipped to South Africa and Kenya through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
The drugs were being transported by members of Transnational Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO), some of who were promptly arrested, their mansions raided and their luxury vehicles seized.
A statement on yesterday by spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi, read that through credible intelligence, NDLEA operatives last Friday intercepted a notorious drug trafficker, Suleiman Oba, who was a member of a cartel distributing cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ephedrine between Nigeria, Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, and Europe.
According to Babafemi, Oba was arrested while attempting to board a Rwanda Air flight to South Africa with two boxes loaded with ephedrine sealed in semovita packs. He said the recovered substance was a precursor chemical and active ingredient in the production of methamphetamine.
He disclosed that Suleiman, who held a South African passport and married to a South African woman and had lived there for over 20 years, in his statement, identified Hakeem Salami, who equally lived in Lagos and South Africa as the head of the drug ring.
Babafemi said a follow-up raid in the house of Salami located at 75 Wosilatu Dawodu Street, Ijesha, Aguda, Surulere area of Lagos State last Monday revealed that he had fled the country on the same day Suleiman was arrested.
The spokesman, however, said a white Toyota Venza car with registration number LSR 410 HT, a Mercedes Benz SUV marked LSD 998HP, phones and vital documents needed for further investigation were recovered from the house.
Babafemi recalled that in August 2021, the agency had seized 25.6 kilogrammes ephedrine from a trafficker, Arua Onwuka at the Lagos airport, a seizure that has also been traced to the same cartel whose identified members are currently on the run.
He revealed that an official of the airport, Godwin Shedrack (a.k.a Goddy) fingered as a member of the syndicate was also under investigation.
In the same vein, attempt by another syndicate to export 10.4 kilogrammes skunk concealed with scent leaf and pepper, going to Nairobi, Kenya, was equally thwarted by NDLEA operatives attached to the NAHCO export shed of the airport on Saturday 26th August.
A suspect, Ekechukwu Ndubuisi, has already been arrested in connection with the seizure.
Babafemi said another bid to export a consignment of 180 cannisters of laughing gas to South Africa by a freight agent, Oyekola Gbenga for a fee of N2 million was also frustrated by operatives, who seized the cargo and arrested the suspect.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives on Friday 25th August succeeded in arresting a drug kingpin, Ngene Onyedikachi, who recruited the fake couple, Ilonzeh Onyebuchi and Ilonzeh Nonyelum arrested for ingesting 1.82 kilogrammes and 1.5 kilogrammes of cocaine respectively at the Lagos airport on 1st August while on their way to India.
The kingpin was picked at his residence located at 28 Afolabi Brown Street, Akoka, Yaba, after an intensive surveillance that lasted 25 days.
Babafemi said during his interrogation, Onyedikachi confessed that the two suspects: Ilonzeh Onyebuchi and Ilonzeh Nonyelum were introduced to him by another member of his syndicate, whom he claimed to have met at Zion Church in Cele area of Lagos. He explained that the drug was sourced from Guinea Conakry.
