BY Idris Shehu
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested Paul Okwuy Mbadugha for alleged drug trafficking.
In a statement on Sunday, Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokesperson, said the suspect was nabbed on August 12 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) Abuja after he tested positive for ingestion of cocaine.
Babafemi added that Mbadugha was apprehended during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam, via Doha.
He said the suspect was then placed under excretion observation for four days before Mbadugha allegedly excreted a total of 88 wraps of the illicit drug with a gross weight of 1.710 kilograms.
“In his statement, he claimed he’s a Lagos-based businessman and was given the cocaine pellets to swallow by a friend in the Isolo area of the state for onward delivery in Vietnam for a fee of $2,000,” the statement reads.
Similarly, NDLEA officers at the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, seized a shipment of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, weighing 800 grams and concealed in noodles going to Congo.
A follow-up operation at the Alaba International Market in the Ojo LGA led to the arrest of Nnamani Sunny, the alleged sender of the intercepted consignment.
“No less than Eight Hundred and Ninety-Two Thousand Four Hundred (892,400) bottles of codeine-based syrup worth Six Billion Two Hundred and Forty-Six Million Eight Hundred Thousand Naira (N6,246,800,000.00) in street value were recovered from five containers by NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers state during a joint examination of the containers with men of the Nigeria Customs and other port stakeholders on Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th August 2024,” the statement reads.
“The bottles of the opioid were packed in 5,337 cartons with a gross weight of 133,860 kilograms and shipped in five containers from India.
“In Ekiti State, NDLEA operatives supported by men of the Nigerian Army and other security agencies as well as community youths on Wednesday 14th August raided the Ise forest reserve, Saalaja camp, Ise-Ekiti, where 21,800 kilograms of cannabis sativa on 20 hectares of farmland were destroyed.
“The following day, Thursday 15th August, NDLEA officers on patrol along Onitsha- Enugu road in Enugu intercepted a Sienna bus marked SKA-24 AG from which 200.2kg of cannabis was recovered and the driver, Okoro Emmanuel, 41, arrested.
“While the duo of Joseph Apeh, 45, and Diamond Nnabuike, 21, were arrested with 145,400 pills of tramadol on Monday 12th August at Gadar Tamburawa, area of Kano, NDLEA operatives in Ogun state on Tuesday 13th August arrested 70-year-old Fidelis Egede and three others: Samuel Sylvanus, 31; Jato Samson, 33; and Francis Blessing, 28, when a cannabis plantation on six hectares was raided at Alaka village.”
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