A 29-year-old South African, Erasmus Jean-Pierre, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), with 2.6 kilograms of methamphetamine found on him.
The South African was caught last Wednesday while trying to export the illicit drug concealed in his luggage to the Middle East, through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja.
This was as the anti-narcotics agency also intercepted 1,343.8kg skunk, ketamine going to UK and Indonesia seized 514,420 pills of opioids in raids carried out in Gombe, Adamawa, Ogun states.
NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, made these disclosures in a press release on Sunday.
The South African was intercepted by NDLEA operatives during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 404 from Abuja to the Middle East, via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
A thorough search of his luggage led to the discovery of the whitish powdery illicit substance factory packed in different parts of the bag.
Preliminary investigation reveals that the South African arrived Lagos through Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on Saturday, 19 August, came to Abuja on Tuesday.
The South African allegedly took possession of the brown bag containing the drug consignment on Wednesday before heading to the Abuja Airport for his flight out of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, NDLEA officers in Gombe State on patrol along Darazo Road, last Monday, recovered an abandoned Volkswagen Sharon vehicle marked GME 76 XD.
Found in the abandoned vehicle were a total of 373,420 pills of opioids including tramadol and diazepam, Babafemi stated in the release.
In the same vein, operatives, last Wednesday, raided the home of a drug dealer, Ifeanyi Orji, in Ibafo area of Ogun State where 81,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg weighing 32.4kgs were recovered.
In Adamawa State, NDLEA operatives, on Tuesday, recovered 60,000 pills of tramadol from a suspect, Ibrahim Abba (25), who was travelling in a commercial Toyota Starlet car from Kalaa Village to Mubi.
Equally, in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, operatives intercepted two consignments of skunk with a gross weight of 1, 242.1 kilograms.
The first consignment of 665.1kgs was seized from a truck around Area 3 last Sunday, while the second one, weighing 577kgs, was recovered during a stop-and-search operation along Lokoja- Abaji Expressway same day.
“The consignment was concealed in Jumia goods delivery packs inside a container Mercedes truck, whose driver, Yusuf Yakubu Asokomhe, and his assistant, Tunde Ogundare, were arrested,” Babafemi stated.
Operatives on patrol along along Jebba-Minna Road, Kwara State intercepted a commercial truck conveying goods from Lagos to Katsina, on Tuesday.
37.5kgs of cannabis sativa, among other items hidden in the goods, were recovered. The driver, Abdulazeez Usman and his assistant, Halidu Musa, were arrested for further investigation.
Similarly, In Yobe State, NDLEA operatives, on Wednesday, intercepted an ash colour Sharon Galaxy vehicle, marked AKK 484 XA.
The vehicle which was intercepted along Potiskum-Gombe Road, was coming from Baissa in Kurmi Local Government Area of Taraba State.
Three suspects in the vehicle- Ya’u Yahuza (30); Yahaya Muhd (29), and Tanimu Salisu (20) -were arrested with 133 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 62kgs.
Operatives in Edo State, last Thursday, stormed the Uzebba Forest in Owan West Local government Area of the state, where they arrested Esazobor Ohioze (33).
54.3kgs cannabis recovered from a hut in the forest, while a total of 2.995696 hectares of cannabis farms were destroyed.
NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) attached to courier firms in Lagos also thwarted efforts by transnational drug cartels to move a consignment of 117 grams of ketamine and 2.14 kilograms of skunk.
The ketamine was neatly concealed in a pair of leather male slippers and was being shipped to Indonesia, while the skunk was clinically hidden in the walls of a local wooden drum.
Chairman/CEO of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), commended the efforts of the officers and men of the NAIA, Gombe, Ogun, Adamawa, FCT, Kwara, Yobe, Edo commands DOGI for a job well done in the past week.
He charged them and their colleagues across the country to intensify their drug supply reduction operations and equally balance that with drug demand reduction activities.
