OPERATIVES of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted consignments of cocaine concealed in a local mortar and the false bottom of a backpack destined for China and Italy, respectively, through a logistics firm in Lagos.

 

Director of Media and Advocacy for the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja.

 

He revealed that officers of the Directorate of Operation and General Investigations (DOGI) carried out the seizures on Thursday, July 30.

 

According to him, the intercepted items included 250 grams of cocaine factory fitted into the base of a local mortar packed for export to China, and 500 grams of the same Class A drug hidden in a backpack bound for Italy.

 

In a related development, the agency announced the arrest of a 38 year old notorious drug dealer, Ugo Gift Okonkwo, at Eagle Island in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

 

According to the agency, “The suspect was nabbed with various quantities of cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamine, swinol, tramadol, and codeine syrup at the time of his arrest on Sunday, 26th July, following credible intelligence”

 

The NDLEA spokesman further disclosed that on Monday, July 27, officers on a stop and search operation at the DMGS roundabout in Onitsha, Anambra State, intercepted a truck carrying 26,000 bottles of codeine syrup weighing 3,960 kilogrammes.

 

The 40 year old truck driver, Chinedu Nwanze, was arrested during the operation.

 

Other arrests across the country included the recovery of 331.84 kilogrammes of skunk from a Toyota Sienna bus along the Kwale-Ughelli expressway in Delta State, and the arrest of a 64 year old man, Joseph Nwaeke, in the Karu area of Nasarawa State with 68 kilogrammes of skunk and 29 grams of methamphetamine.

 

In Zamfara State, operatives on patrol along the Zaria-Gusau highway intercepted 27 year old Sani Umar conveying 7,400 pills of tramadol which were suspected to be supplies for criminal elements.

 

Babafemi noted that alongside these enforcement actions, the agency’s commands across the country have sustained their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaigns in schools, workplaces, and communities.

 

Commending the DOGI, Rivers, Anambra, Delta, Nasarawa, and Zamfara commands for the successful operations, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CCEO ) of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (retd), urged the officers to sustain the momentum.

 

“I enjoin them and their colleagues across the country to continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the drug control efforts of the agency,” Marwa said.