NDLEA intercepts cannabis-filled fuel tanker in Ondo
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it intercepted a 20,000-litre fuel tanker, loaded with illicit drugs, along the Akoko/Lokoja expressway in Ondo state on Friday.
In a statement on Sunday detailing the agency’s operations over the past week, Babafemi said the tanker was notorious for evading arrests.
Babafemi said the driver abandoned the vehicle at a church premises in Ugbe Akoko, and fled into the bush.
“A search of the tanker revealed a false compartment concealing 165 bags of cannabis weighing 2,145kg alongside its legitimate fuel cargo destined for Jos, Plateau state,” the statement reads.
Babafemi said it was one of the week’s most brazen discoveries.
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives arrested the mastermind of a deal that would have seen 1.2kg of cocaine concealed in phone chargers leave for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Babafemi said the suspect, 34-year-old Dunu Ebubechukwu, was arrested at Trade Fair Market, Ojo area of Lagos on Friday while posing as a herbal tea businessman.
The NDLEA official said Ebubechukwu admitted to being the mastermind of some illicit drug shipments in the past while stating that he discarded his telephone SIM card once he learnt his latest consignment had been intercepted by the NDLEA.
Ebubechukwu was first arrested by the NDLEA in 2011 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, after ingesting 900grams of cocaine and 130grams of heroin in an attempt to fly to Austria under the name Dunu Chukwuyenre Enoch.
He was prosecuted for the crime, convicted and sentenced to five years in jail. He thereafter changed his name to Dunu Bethel Ebubechukwu and returned to the criminal trade, Babafemi said.
Meanwhile, also at the Lagos airport, operatives recovered 966,200 tablets of Tramadol 225mg worth over N1.1 billion concealed among thrift trousers in a 21-carton consignment from Pakistan, and 57.80kg of loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, worth over N173 million in street value.
The consignments were said to have been hidden inside cartons of disposable hand gloves in a shipment from Singapore that had been unclaimed for weeks before a joint examination by NDLEA officers, Customs and other security agencies was conducted on Thursday.
MORE ARRESTS IN LAGOS, ADAMAWA, EKITI
According to the statement, three suspects — Yashim Dauji, Larry Ifeanyi, and Joseph Moji — were arrested at Tincan Port in Lagos over the seizure of 842.54kg of cannabis-laced cookies.
The arrests were made as another 598.08kg (890 packets) of similarly infused cookies and gummies were intercepted in a 40-foot container at the port and linked to the suspects already in custody.
Also in Lagos, NDLEA operatives recovered 2,386.9kg of cannabis, 350grams of cocaine, over 100kg of assorted tramadol grades, 9.7 litres of codeine syrup and 4kg of rohypnol at Gbaji area of the state, while two suspects, Damilare Francis and Emeh Emmanuel, were arrested with 720kg of cannabis at Agbara area.
Meanwhile, three suspects — Saidu Mustapha, 35; Zaharadeen Salisu, 29; and AbdulSalam Abdullahi, 25 — were nabbed with 636kg of cannabis concealed in chicken manure aboard a bus travelling from Owo, Ondo to Jos, Plateau, along Okene/Lokoja highway in Kogi.
In Adamawa, Babafemi said NDLEA operatives on patrol in Jimeta, Yola North LGA, recovered 864,000 pills of tramadol from a residence linked to a fleeing suspect identified as Patrick KC Frank, whose car rammed an NDLEA patrol vehicle before he escaped.
In Taraba, 58-year-old Kelechi Unachukwu was arrested along Zaki-Biam road, Wukari LGA, with a cocktail of over 109kg of tramadol, diazepam, pentazocine, phenobarbital, exol-5, nitrazepam, bromazepam and pregabalin conveyed in his car from Onitsha, Anambra to Yola, Adamawa.
Babafemi added that a truck loaded with bags of cement was intercepted by NDLEA operatives along the Zaria-Kano expressway, Kaduna, with 1,179kg of skunk recovered, while a suspect, Hamza Dahiru, 25, was arrested in Bauchi in a follow-up operation after the seizure of 322.5kg of cannabis at Deba town, Gombe, on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in Ekiti, two suspects — Chuks Alex, 50, and Asafa Adekunle, 35 — were arrested after NDLEA operatives uncovered and destroyed a 4-hectare cannabis farm in Efon-Alaaye forest, recovering 117kg of already-harvested skunk.
Also, in Enugu, Obinna David, 20, was arrested at Ugbema Junction with 40,590 capsules of tramadol on Saturday.
