Essential Ndubuisi
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 34-year-old man, Dadda Lorenzo Harvy Albert, at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers state. Albert, who hails from Suriname, was found to have brought 117 parcels of cocaine, weighing 9.9kg, concealed in extra-large latex condoms packed inside bottles of 100ml body spray into Nigeria. The suspect claimed he was searching for his Nigerian father, whom he called “Omini.”
Femi Babafemi, Director of Media and Advocacy at NDLEA Headquarters Abuja, revealed that NDLEA officers at Tincan seaport in Lagos intercepted 110 parcels of cannabis weighing 55kg, hidden in a container marked MSCU 4972769 from Toronto via Montreal, Canada. The illicit consignment was discovered in the container bearing five units of used vehicles, during a joint examination of the cargo by NDLEA and other port stakeholders.
Babafemi further revealed that 1,559.3 kilograms (1.5 tons) of psychoactive substances have been seized during interdiction operations in five states over the past week. In addition to the above seizures, two suspects were arrested with 120 blocks of cannabis weighing 148.7kg along Zaria-Kano road, Kano, while not less than 418.5kg of the same substance and a Sienna space bus used in conveying it were recovered on Thursday 6th April at a notorious drug hub, Patey, Lagos Island.
A suspect, Azi Solomon, was also arrested the same day at Ojota garage while attempting to move 23kg cannabis to another state. Similarly, two suspects, Abubakar Abdulahi and Stanley Tobias, were arrested on Friday 7th April with 108,000 tablets of tramadol at Oyingbo motor park in Lagos mainland.
The NDLEA operatives on routine patrol along Owerri – Onitsha expressway also intercepted a commercial bus from which a total of 37, 210 pills of opioids and 30 bottles of codeine syrup were recovered, and three suspects were arrested in follow-up operations in Imo state. A total of 40.9kg cannabis was seized from two suspects, Haruna Adamu, 32, and Salisu Ibrahim, 30, in parts of Taraba, just as 502, 840 pills of tramadol and exol-5 were recovered from a suspect, Imrana Aliyu, in Wukari on Thursday 6th April, while 205.6kg was recovered from the home of a fleeing suspect in Gida Dubu area of Bauchi metropolis. The Sokoto state command of the agency also received 667.6kg of cannabis seized by men of the Customs Service along Illela-Niger Republic border.
