Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), on Wednesday, destroyed and razed some massive warehouses and tents storing over 317,417 kilograms (317.4 metric tons) of cannabis in Opuje Forest in Edo State.
This was coming barely hours after the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the agency, NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd) vowed to make life tough for drug barons and cartels in the new year, if they fail to back out of the illicit trade.
NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, stated these in a press release.
He added that some arrests were also made while destroying the drugs and the warehouses, including a police impersonator.
By this act, the anti-narcotics agency, in a two-day operation, dealt a lethal blow to a cluster of cannabis syndicates operating in the area, Babafemi added.
According to the release, those arrested included Omoruan Theophilus (37), who parades as a police inspector to convey the drugs from the forests to the cities; Aigberuan Jacob (42); Ekeinde Anthony Zaza (53); and Naomi Patience Ohiewere (42).
“The Opuje Community in Owan West Local Government Area, Edo State, is notorious for cannabis cultivation, where the cartels invest huge resources.
“[They are] cutting down economic trees of the forest reserves and cultivating cannabis on a large scale, running into hundreds of hectares.
“After harvest, they built warehouses inside the forest reserves and employ the services of armed youths to protect the warehouses 24/7.
“Accessing the forest and warehouses on Wednesday, 18 January, took hours of trekking by hundreds of NDLEA operatives who were ambushed with bonfire by armed youths on their way out of the community the following day.
“But [they] were able to successfully leave the area without any casualty, except the heavy investment losses inflicted on the cartels,” Babafemi stated.
In another development, NDLEA, acting on an intelligence report from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States, busted a criminal syndicate involved in trafficking of fake USD currency in Lagos, on Thursday.
“During a combined operation carried out by NDLEA operatives with their EFCC colleagues, a total of $269,000 counterfeit US dollars were recovered from the syndicate at the Oniru Shoprite Area of Lekki, Lagos, where three suspects were arrested,” Babafemi added.
The NDLEA boss, Marwa, has commended all the officers involved in the two special operations in Edo and Lagos states for their professionalism and commitment.
He has since directed that the fake dollars recovered and suspects arrested in the Lekki operation be immediately transferred to the EFCC for possible prosecution.
