NDLEA nabs kingpin, filmmaker over illicit drug shipments

• Arrests two ladies, ex-convict, others in raids
A wanted drug kingpin and Lagos socialite, Alhaja Aishat Feyisara Ajoke Elediye, 61, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in a new vigour against drug trafficking in the New Year.

Elediye was arrested on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, in her mansion in the Okota area of Lagos following the interception of a truckload of illicit drug consignment from her staff the same day.

Known in the drug underworld as “Iya Ruka”, Alhaja Ajoke, as she is fondly called in her social circle, has her true identity shrouded in mystery for years while she remained on the wanted list of NDLEA for leading one of the drug cartels operating from Mushin area of Lagos.

The lid was, however, blown off her invincibility on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, when NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence, intercepted a white Isuzu truck carrying 44 jumbo sacks containing 1,540 kilogrammes of imported cannabis and driven by one of her staff, 41-year-old Abideen Adio.

Spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, who confirmed the development in a statement yesterday, said the operatives, thereafter, stormed her hideout at 33 Adebayo Oyewole Street, off Ago Palace Way, Okota, where they arrested her.

According to him, on the surface, Alhaja Ajoke is a businesswoman who imports fabrics and shoes from China, but beneath is a massive illicit drug trade.

“She is also recognised as the Iyalaje of Blessing Sisters, an influential club of society women in Lagos,” Babafemi said.

He was picked up following the arrest of his partner, Uzoekwe Ugochukwu James, earlier the same day at a warehouse in Ajao Estate, where Mbadiwe allegedly sent him to collect a shipment of 33 parcels of Loud, a potent strain of cannabis weighing 17.30 kilogrammes.
The consignment arrived at the import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, on December 24, 2024, from the United States on a Delta Airline flight, concealed in large wooden boxes.

In Kwara State, a fresh graduate, Khadijat Abdulraheem, 24, and a 20-year-old student of the University of Ilorin, Ayomide Morakinyo, were on Sunday, December 29, 2024, arrested by NDLEA operatives at Tanke-University of Ilorin road, Oke Odo, Ilorin based on credible intelligence that they were producing and selling drug-laced cupcakes to students in the community.

When their apartment was searched, 42 pieces of drugged cakes were recovered from them.

Also, an ex-convict, Sodade Sunday Eniola, who was arrested by operatives of the Tincan Command of NDLEA in June 2024 for drug trafficking, prosecuted and sentenced to four years in prison, has been arrested again by officers of the MMIA Strategic Command of the Agency for passport racketeering.

When he was convicted by a Federal High Court in Lagos on June 14, 2024, the trial judge gave him an option of paying a N750,000 fine, which he paid and was let go.

However, in a series of operations in December 2024, NDLEA operatives at the export shed of the Lagos airport intercepted about 52 passports of different countries from shipments going to Canada, Russia, and other countries concealed in shoe soles and food items.

Further investigations led to the arrest of four members of three syndicates involved in the racket.