• Arrests octogenarian, community leader’s wives, son for illicit drug dealing
• Iran-bound drug mule excretes 76 wraps of cocaine at Kano airport

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted a total of 25 million pills of tapentadol, an opioid three times stronger than tramadol, and 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup at the Tincan port complex in Lagos.

The seizures were made from three containers which had been on the watchlist of the Agency following processed intelligence.Confirming the development, the spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement yesterday, said that as a result, the NDLEA had requested a 100 per cent joint examination of the shipments with men of the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies.

According to him, the 25 million pills of tapentadol have an estimated street value of N13.7 billion, while the codeine consignment has an estimated street value of N2.4 billion, bringing the total value of the seizures to N16.1 billion.

The tapentadol consignment, packed in 500 cartons, was discovered in one of the containers on Tuesday, September 17, while another container examined the same day contained 175,000 bottles of Barcadin cough syrup with codeine, packed in 875 cartons. The third container, containing 175,000 bottles of CSC cough syrup with codeine, was examined on Friday, September 20.

Meanwhile, operatives of the Lagos State Strategic Command of the Agency on Friday, September 20, arrested an 80-year-old grandfather, Pa Aremu Shojobi, with 14kg of cannabis at his home in the Iyana Ipaja area of the state.

In his statement, the octogenarian claimed he had been in the business of selling illicit drugs for 25 years. He further claimed he gets his supplies from the Benin Republic and sells to his customers from his residence between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. every day.

Also, NDLEA operatives in Lagos on Wednesday, September 18, raided the two homes of a community leader and Sarkin Yamma of Badagry West LCDA, Alhaji Bashir Mohammed Talba, where 226kg of cannabis was recovered from his two wives and son.

Though Talba is currently at large, a search of his house in the Ashipa area of Seme Badagry led to the recovery of 93 compressed blocks of Cannabis sativa weighing 57.6kg from his first wife, Asma’u Bashiru, 35, and son, Sadat Bashiru, 22, while another search of his house at the Aketegbo area of Seme Badagry led to the seizure of 302 compressed blocks of cannabis weighing 168.6kg from his second wife, Hauwa Bashir, 42.

About 720 blocks of Arizona, a strain of cannabis weighing 390kg, were also recovered from a Mitsubishi delivery van marked MUS 720 XH at the Ojo area of Lagos on Monday, September 16.

At the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano, NDLEA operatives on Sunday, September 15, arrested a 38-year-old drug mule, Okafor Ifeanyi Anthony, while attempting to board a Qatar Airlines flight to Iran via Doha with 76 wraps of cocaine in his stomach.

After three days of observation, Okafor excreted the 76 pellets of the ingested cocaine weighing 1.267kg. In Kogi State, NDLEA officers on patrol along the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway on Tuesday, September 17, recovered 700,000 pills of exol-5 coming from Lagos for distribution in Kano and Kaduna, while a suspect, Udemefuna Chibuike, 23, was arrested on Friday, September 20, along the Mokwa-Jebba road, Niger State, in possession of 49,000 tablets of tramadol, 20,000 tablets of diazepam, 100 ampoules of tramadol injection and 50 bottles of cough syrup with codeine.

A total of 451 blocks of cannabis weighing 213kg were intercepted along Azikiwe Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Wednesday, September 18, by NDLEA officers who apprehended a suspect, Ogochukwu Paul, 33, conveying the consignment to a notorious drug haven in Borikiri.

While operatives in Plateau State on Friday, September 20, arrested a wanted suspect, Jonathan Ali Abuttur, 46, at Agingi-Rukuba road, Bassa Local Council, in possession of 808kg of Cannabis sativa concealed in 68 bags of sugar and fertiliser, their counterparts in Kwara also arrested Shaibu Musa with 28kg of the same psychoactive substance.