NDLEA arrests ‘drug lord’ in Lagos, destroys 33 hectares of cannabis farms in Ondo, Edo

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has arrested Charles Uwagbale, a 48-year-old alleged drug kingpin, who specialises in sponsoring young Nigerians to traffic class A drugs to Europe. 

In a statement on Sunday, Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokesperson, said Uwagbale was arrested by the agency’s operatives in his hotel room in the Okota area of Lagos on July 21. 

At the time of his arrest, Babafemi said Uwagbale “was preparing a recruited courier to swallow 93 pellets of cocaine meant for distribution in Italy”. 

“The 48-year-old drug kingpin, Charles Uwagbale, had recruited Uju Dominic, 35, from his base in Italy with a deal to come to Nigeria, ingest 100 pellets of cocaine on Friday 21st July and return to Italy on July 22,” the statement reads. 

“True to plan, upon the arrival in Nigeria, the mule was lodged in Golden Heaven Hotel located at Enoma street off Ago-Palace way, Okota, Isolo, Lagos where Uwagbale brought 93 wraps of the class A drug for him to swallow at about 23:45 pm Friday night.

“They were in the process when NDLEA operatives who have been on their trail following credible intelligence stormed their hotel room, arrested both and recovered the drug exhibits with a total weight of 1.427 kilograms. 

“Operatives of the Lagos state command of the agency who made the arrest and seizure had on July 20 raided Akala in Mushin area of the state where they recovered 37.5kg cannabis from the home of a fleeing suspect.” 

Meanwhile, Babafemi said operatives also thwarted an attempt to smuggle 98 cartons containing 5,122,900 pills of 225 milligrams of Tramadol with an estimated street value of about N3.7 billion into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja.

He said the success was recorded by a joint team of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), NDLEA, and the DHL cargo warehouse at the airport. 

“Preliminary findings revealed that the consignments were imported from India and Pakistan, while some of the seized consignments had Freetown, Sierra Leone as the final destination,” he said. 

 12.4 MILLION PILLS OF OPIODS RECOVERED

Babafemi further said NDLEA operatives in Bauchi state “recovered a total of 6,265,080 pills of opioids from three suspects: Emmanuel Onyebuchi, 32; Uche Lydia, 33; and Chinedu Ezeanyim, 32”. 

He said the recovery followed the arrest of the trio and a truck driver with his assistant at a shopping complex along the Maiduguri bye-pass in Bauchi town on July 19 and a subsequent follow-up search of the residence of Lydia. 

He added that arrests were also made in Adamawa and Imo states.

“No fewer than 999,500 tablets of Exol-5 were also recovered by operatives from a shop close to the market at Hong road, Gombi, Adamawa state on Friday 21st July, while 46,000 capsules of tramadol were seized from a suspect, Paul Ajaegbu, 36, along Owerri – Aba road, Imo state on Monday 17th July. The same suspect had earlier been arrested, precisely on 9th February 2023, for the same offence,” he said. 

In Ondo state, NDLEA operatives destroyed 29 hectares of cannabis farms in Ofosu forest, Babafemi said

He added that in another raid of the warehouse of a suspect at Elegbeka, Ose LGA of the state, 107 jumbo bags of cannabis weighing 1,132.5kg were recovered. 

“In Edo state, operatives on July 17 raided the Utese forest Ovia North East LGA where they arrested Victor Asukwo Jack, with 59 bags of processed cannabis sativa weighing 640kg,” the NDLEA spokesperson said.

“His two cannabis farms measuring 1.489895 and 2.445295 hectares were destroyed. Also, Endurance Chukwuma, 50, was arrested with seven bags of processed cannabis sativa weighing 68kg, while his cannabis farm measuring 0.254324 hectares was destroyed.”