NDLEA nabs businessman with 12 consignments of cocaine at Enugu airport

• Busts Katsina drug party, arrests groom, 25 others
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted 12 consignments of cocaine belonging to members of a drug trafficking organisation.

The arrest happened at the weekend at Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

The agency said a 44-year-old businessman, Augustine Justine Emeka, who claimed he dealt in copper wires, was arrested upon arrival from Douala, Cameroon, via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, aboard Ethiopian Airlines.

He was found with the consignments consisting of 797 pellets of cocaine weighing 17.6 kilogrammes.

During a preliminary interview, the suspect admitted the consignments were for delivery to 12 persons in the country.

In a related development, NDLEA operatives at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, on December 8, arrested a fleeing suspect, Onyejiuwa Prince Ifeanyi.

The suspect had gone into hiding since September 8, following the seizure of a United Kingdom-bound consignment of 20 kg of cannabis concealed in tomato tins.
Also, operatives of the Seaports Operations of the agency, on December 4, arrested a 45-year-old Beninoise, Jamila Fatiu, at Ebute Ero Jetty in Lagos Island with 398 bottles of codeine cough syrup. Fatiu had been on her way to the Seme border via a boat service.

IN Katsina State, NDLEA officers, acting on intelligence, disrupted a pre-wedding drug party in the Shola Quarters and arrested 25 youths.

The officers swooped on the suspects as they took turns in abusing illicit substances, including a mixture of drugs in a plastic bucket.

The groom and organiser of the party, Musa Gwandi, who was not at the venue when the 25 were arrested, was eventually nabbed on Sunday,  December 3, following a manhunt.
 
Same day, operatives in Anambra State intercepted a truck, marked BEN 302 YS (Edo). And after a search, 5,612 bottles of codeine-based syrup; 57,800 capsules of tramadol and 5,100 ampoules of pentazocine injection, among others were recovered.

Two ladies,  Chiemenam Akusoba, 25, and Chidinma Ibenwa, 28, were also arrested on December 9, with 15.8503 kg of cocaine,  heroin, methamphetamine and cannabis sativa in Umuogbu, Nnobi and Onitsha respectively.

The agency also disclosed that three suspects: Monday John, 50; Maryam Adang, 48; and Mohammed Lawal Musa, 36, were arrested in different parts of Kaduna State.

While John was arrested with 28.4 kg of cannabis on  December 7, Maryam was nabbed with 18.6 kg of the same substance on Saturday,  December 9. The same day, Musa, an indigene of Damagaran, Niger Republic, was arrested with 34 kg of cannabis sativa along Abuja-Kaduna highway, while he was on his way to Niger Republic.

In Kogi State, 20-year-old Adamu Nuhu was arrested on December 3, along Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway, while coming from Onitsha, Anambra, enroute Kaduna, with 2,700 ampoules of pentazocine injection; 11,900 pills of tramadol 225 mg and 100 mg as well as 124,000 tablets of diazepam.

While Taye Ali, 43, and Okon Peter, 60 were arrested with 97 kg of cannabis at Kanisuru, in the Ipele area of Ondo State on December 9, Nnabuke Christian, 29, was nabbed with 46,000 tablets of diazepam, 4,900 pills of tramadol and 6,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection at Gwagwalada, FCT Abuja.

Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd) commended operatives for their efforts, urging them and their compatriots across all formations of the agency to maintain the offensive against illicit drugs.