Three kingpins and 16 other offenders have been convicted and sentenced to 302 years in jail.
The suspects were arrested for dealing in illicit drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis and opioids and prosecuted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The 19 convicts top the list of 414 drug traffickers and dealers convicted by the Federal High Court in Benue, Bauchi, Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Gombe and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) between July 1 and 31, 2024, based on charges filed against them by the anti-narcotics agency.
One of the kingpins, 50-year-old Bolanle Lookman Dauda, was arrested in a raid by operatives of a special unit in NDLEA at Ibiye, along the Lagos-Badagry expressway, on Saturday, May 25, 2024, while attempting to cross the land border to deliver the consignment in Ghana.
At the point of his arrest, 42 blocks of cocaine weighing 47.5kg were found on him.
A follow-up operation in his residence at Plot 24/25 OPIC extension, Petedo Road, Agbara, Ogun State, led to the recovery of an additional eight blocks of the same drug weighing 10kg, bringing the total weight to 57.5kg.
He was subsequently arraigned before Justice Ambrose Allagoa of the Federal High Court, Lagos, in charge number FHC/L/537C/2024. In his judgment delivered on July 19, Justice Allagoa convicted and sentenced him to 21 years imprisonment or payment of an option of N30 million fine.
Another kingpin who was put behind bars is 34-year-old Ikeh Stanley Ifeanyi, who was arrested at the Idumota market in Lagos Island, where no fewer than 1,100 ampoules of lethal synthetic opioid, fentanyl, weighing 6.480kg were recovered from him.
The dangerous opioid is 100 times more potent than heroin and is currently responsible for over 70 per cent of overdose deaths. It is also a major contributor to fatal and nonfatal overdoses in the U.S.
He was later arraigned before Justice Kehinde Ogundare of the Federal High Court Lagos in charge number FHC/L/433C/2024.
Delivering his judgment on July 4, the trial judge convicted Ifeanyi of the two counts and sentenced him to 14 years in jail or an option of a N2 million fine.
