S/African nabbed with methamphetamine consignment at Abuja airport

• NDLEA intercepts 1,343.8kg of skunk, ketamine going to UK, Indonesia, others

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have thwarted an attempt by a 29-year-old South African, Erasmus Jean-Pierre, to export 2.6 kilogrammes of methamphetamine concealed in his luggage to the Middle East through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja.

Jean-Pierre was recently intercepted by NDLEA operatives during outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 404 from Abuja to the Middle East via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

A thorough search of his luggage led to the discovery of the whitish and powdery illicit substance, factory-packed in different parts of the bag.

Confirming the development, yesterday, spokesperson for NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, said preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect arrived in Lagos through Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on Saturday, came to Abuja on Tuesday, August 22, and took possession of the brown bag containing the drug consignment on Wednesday, August 23, before heading to the Abuja airport for his flight out of Nigeria.

Meanwhile, NDLEA officers in Gombe state on patrol along Darazo Road on Monday, August 21, recovered an abandoned Volkswagen Sharon vehicle marked GME 76 XD, containing a total of 373,420 pills of opioids, including tramadol and diazepam.

In the same vein, operatives in Ogun State on Wednesday, August 23, raided the home of a drug dealer, Ifeanyi Orji, in Ibafo area of the state where 81,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg weighing 32.4kgs were recovered.

In Adamawa State, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday, August 22, recovered 60,000 pills of tramadol from a suspect, Ibrahim Abba, 25, who was travelling in a commercial Toyota Starlet car from Kalaa village to Mubi.

Similarly, in Abuja the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), operatives intercepted two consignments of skunk with a gross weight of 1, 242.1kgs.

The first consignment of 665.1kgs was seized from a truck around Area 3 on Sunday, August 20, while the second one weighing 577kgs was recovered during a stop and search operation along Lokoja- Abaji Expressway, the same day.

The consignment was concealed in Jumia Goods delivery packs inside a container Mercedes truck, whose driver, Yusuf Yakubu Asokomhe, and his assistant, Tunde Ogundare, were arrested.

In Kwara State, operatives on patrol along Jebba- Minna Road on Tuesday, August 22, intercepted a commercial truck conveying goods from Lagos to Katsina with 37.5kgs of Cannabis sativa hidden among other items.

The driver, Abdulazeez Usman, and his assistant, Halidu Musa, were arrested for further investigation.

Similarly, in Yobe State, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday, August 23, intercepted an ash-coloured Sharon Galaxy vehicle marked AKK 484 XA, along Potiskum-Gombe Road, coming from Baissa, Kurmi Local Council of Taraba State. Three suspects in the vehicle: Ya’u Yahuza, 30; Yahaya Muhd, 29, and Tanimu Salisu, 20, were arrested with 133 blocks of Cannabis sativa weighing 62kgs.

Also, anti-narcotics operatives in Edo on Thursday, August 24, stormed the Uzebba Forest in Owan West Local Council of the state, where they arrested Esazobor Ohioze, 33, with 54.3kgs of Cannabis recovered from a hut, while a total of 2.995696 hectares of Cannabis farms were destroyed.

Efforts by transnational drug cartels to move a consignment of 117g of ketamine neatly concealed in a pair of leather male slippers being shipped to Indonesia and 2.14kg of skunk clinically hidden in the walls of a local wooden drum, were equally frustrated by NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) attached to courier firms in Lagos.