• Arrests six, intercepts Loud shipment concealed in imported vehicle
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have smashed a cocaine trafficking cartel headed by a couple, Bolanle Lookman Dauda and Olayinka Toheebat Dauda, in Lagos and Ogun states.
Spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, who confirmed this yesterday, said the multi-billion naira illicit drug was recovered in two major operations, following the arrest of the kingpin and his queen.
The duo were arrested on Saturday, May 25, by operatives of a special operation unit in NDLEA, with support of the Drug Enforcement Administration of the United States, at Ibiye, along the Lagos-Badagry expressway, as they attempted to cross the border and deliver the consignment in Ghana. Babafemi said at the point of their arrest, 42 blocks of the Class A drug weighing 47.5kg were found on them.
According to him, a swift follow up operation in their residence at Plot 24/25 OPIC extension, Petedo road, Agbara, Ogun State, led to the recovery of eight additional blocks of the same drug weighing 10kg, bringing the total weight of the seizure to 57.5kg.
In another raid by the special unit, no fewer than 1,100 ampoules of lethal synthetic opioid, fentanyl, weighing 6.48kg were recovered from a member of a drug trafficking syndicate, 34-year-old Ikeh Stanley Ifeanyi, at the popular Idumota market in Lagos Island.
About 790 ampoules of the dangerous opioid weighing 5.273kg were equally seized from another member of the fentanyl syndicate, 48-year-old Chieze Ogechukwu Benjamin, who was also arrested at Idumota market.
Fentanyl, a lethal synthetic opioid, which is 100 times more potent than heroin is currently responsible for over 70 per cent of overdose deaths and is a major contributor to fatal and non-fatal overdoses in the United States.
Two other persons: Olayiwola Aremu Kazeem, 37, and Ogunfowora Taofik Ajibola, 35, were arrested on Lagos Island in a different raid by NDLEA officers with 432gm of methamphetamine.
At the Tincan port in Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Saturday, May 25, intercepted 15 parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 7.5kg concealed in the doors and body crevices of a Toyota Highlander SUV in a container marked MSMU 7294325.
The container was declared as containing three units of used vehicles including the Toyota Highlander, which originated from Toronto and was shipped to Nigeria via Montreal, Canada.
A swift follow up operation led to the arrest of two suspects: Sunday Sodade and Oriyomi Adesina, who were to receive the vehicle and the drug consignment. A bribe of N6 million offered to NDLEA officers by the sender of the container based in Canada, through his agent, has also been registered as exhibit for prosecution of the case.
