At the Eleko Beach Road in the Lekki neighborhood of Lagos, agents of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, or NDLEA, have recovered a total of 8,852 kilos (8.8 kg) of Canadian Loud, an imported synthetic variety of cannabis.
After a 30-minute shootout with armed men guarding the shipment placed on two big trucks, this happened.
According to a statement released on Sunday by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media & Advocacy for the NDLEA Headquarters in Abuja, NDLEA agents had set up an ambush for the traffickers along Lekki’s Eleko Beach Road based on reliable intelligence, and at around 4:51 am on May 4 two long trucks carrying the illegal consignments were flagged down.
But instead of halting, the armed guys in the trucks rushed away, and there was a 30-minute exchange of gunfire that followed. The truck drivers and their armed guards fled into the woods when the suspects were subdued by NDLEA agents, leaving the vehicles and the narcotics consignments behind.
The overall number of bags was 202, and the combined gross weight of the two trucks was 8,852 kilograms. One of the vehicles was painted red, and it included 149 jumbo bags weighing 6,548 kilograms, while the other was coloured blue, and it contained 53 huge bags weighing 2,304 kilograms.
The drug lord who brought the illegal shipment into the nation is currently being sought after by agency agents.
On the same day, NDLEA operatives also intercepted a Toyota Sienna vehicle driven by one Mukaila Idowu, conveying 88.3kg skunk at Otedola Bridge, Ikeja area of Lagos, while another suspect, Joseph Friday was arrested on Saturday, May 6 at Iyana Ira, Lagos with 58.7kg cannabis sativa concealed inside his Toyota Camry car marked FST 587FH.
In Ogun State, operatives in the early hours of Wednesday, May 3, busted a mini factory where a suspect, Bakare Taofeek was producing ‘skuchies’ around Safari Onikolobo, Abeokuta. Exhibits recovered from him include 4kg black currant drink (Sobo) mixed with cannabis; 255 litres of skuchies; 1,880 tablets of tramadol; 735 grams of cannabis; three deep freezers; 2 gas cylinders and two cooking pots among others.
In the same vein, operatives in Adamawa arrested a suspect, Sahabi Mohammed, 39, with 8,800 tablets of tramadol and counterfeit N60,000-naira notes, while another suspect, Bala Ali Umar, was arrested on Wednesday, May 3 with 2.850kg cannabis sativa and 825 litres of formalin popularly known as ‘Suck and Die’ at Anguwar Laka, Numan LGA.
In Edo State, a Toyota Previa bus marked NER 460 XA (Bayelsa) conveying 13,000 pills of tramadol and diazepam was intercepted along Ewohimi Road, heading to Ekiti State, while the driver of the vehicle, Femi Oluwadare, was taken into custody on Friday, May 5.
Similarly, another suspect, Ahmed Rafi’u, 34, was arrested with 84 blocks of compressed cannabis weighing 43.200kg, by operatives in Kogi state, while 381.1kg of the same substance was recovered from three suspects travelling in a Sienna minibus in Anambra State.
“They include Innocent Saturday; Sunday Asuquo and Akpan Asukuma who were arrested by a combined patrol team of security agents comprising NDLEA operatives and other security agencies at Nneobi, Anambra state,” the NDLEA said.
Meanwhile, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, DOGI, attached to courier firms have intercepted blocks of compressed brown methamphetamine packaged as soap bars weighing 1.54 kilograms going to Australia.
The seizure at a courier house in Lagos on Tuesday, May 2 was a follow-up operation to an earlier interception of 3.389kg of the same substance on February 23, 2023.
A suspected drug courier, Paul Adetigbe who delivered the previous parcel was eventually arrested with the latest consignment.
“While commending the officers and men of Lagos, Ogun, Adamawa, Edo, Kogi and Anambra Commands of the Agency as well as those of DOGI for their vigilance and professionalism, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) urged them and their peers across the country to step up in their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts,” the statement added.
