Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have recorded another major breakthrough, seizing illicit substances valued at over N3.4 billion and arresting suspects across the country, including a man who posed as a senior police officer.
The seizures, which covered more than 1.3 million tramadol pills and other opioids plus nearly 6,000 kilograms of cannabis, were made during coordinated raids in multiple states and the Federal Capital Territory.
At the Tin-Can Port in Lagos, the agency uncovered a high-grade consignment of Canadian Loud. The 1,200 parcels, weighing 603.75kg and estimated at N1.81 billion on the street, were found hidden inside two Toyota Sienna buses loaded in a 40-foot container that arrived from Montreal, Canada, on September 12.
According to NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, the container had been on the agency’s watchlist after credible intelligence. A joint inspection was later conducted with Customs and other security agencies on Wednesday, September 16, where officers discovered the drugs concealed in 31 black jumbo bags.
In a separate operation in Delta State, anti-narcotic officers arrested a 49-year-old suspect, Innocent Ekpe, along the Benin-Onitsha Expressway in Asaba. Ekpe was caught with 292.48kg of skunk stashed in his silver Sienna bus.
Babafemi explained that Ekpe had been moving drugs across checkpoints by impersonating a Deputy Superintendent of Police identified as Godwin Emeka, using a fake police ID card. He was arrested alongside an accomplice, 39-year-old Nduka Joseph.
Similarly, along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway at Chachi in Tafa LGA of Niger State, operatives arrested three young men — Bashir Usman, 20, Abubakar Nuhu, 18, and Abdulrahman Abdulwahab, 18.
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