The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) agents stormed a skuchies factory in Ogun and detained four drug traffickers, including two church leaders, a female employee of a courier service, and another woman who was involved in fentanyl trafficking in Delta.
Skuchies is a concoction of medications that includes, among other things, Cannabis sativa, tramadol pills, codeine, and swifnol. 4,560 kg of skunk were also confiscated by the agents during interdiction operations in Lagos, Adamawa, and Osun.
The raid on the fentanyl cartel operating out of Warri, Delta State, comes just one month after Odoh Collins Oguejiofor and Oliver Chigozie Uzoma, two members of another syndicate, were detained at Ogbogwu market in Onitsha Head Bridge, Anambra State, as a result of months of intelligence-led investigation into syndicates behind the dangerous drug, which is currently responsible for over 70% of overdose deaths and a significant contributor to the fatal and non-fatal overdoses in the United States.
Adewale Ayeni and Ebipakebina Appeal, two church officials related to two confiscated consignments of the illegal substance, have been detained in Warri, Delta State, according to a statement released on Sunday by the anti-narcotic agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi. Ebipakebina is in charge of transporting foreign visitors from the airport to the church, while Ayeni manages the church’s prayer call center.
He claims that Stacy Njideka, also known as Nkiruka, Ayeni’s business partner, and Naomi David, an employee of United Parcel Services (UPS), were two more female collaborators who were also apprehended in Warri as part of the investigation into the seized packages.
Along the Ngurore-Mayo Belwa route in Adamawa State, agency agents on Wednesday, July 5, stopped a Toyota Hilux truck with the license plate EPE 863 XD. 118 cartons of Indomie Noodles packets were used to hide 544 blocks of compressed Cannabis sativa, totaling 408kg, placed in a fake compartment, and intended for distribution in Yola, Mubi, and Gombe, according to a search of the vehicle driven by Kelvin Efe, 51, and Christian Ogaga, 42.
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Saturday, July 1, arrested a suspect, Segun Odeyemi conveying 89 jumbo bags of skunk with a total weight of 3,842kg in his truck around Eleganza area of Ajah, Lekki, while in Osun State, an abandoned J5 Peugeot bus marked AAA 521 SQ with bags of fresh pepper used to conceal 25 bags of Cannabis sativa weighing 300.5kg was recovered along Akure-Ilesa expressway after its occupants sighted NDLEA officers on patrol on Friday, July 7.
Similar to this, on Thursday, July 6, agents in Ogun State carried out a raid on a skuchies plant in Ajaka, Sagamu, where they detained a suspect named Adekunle Adekola.
Among the items seized from the property are two gas cylinders, 1,356 liters of skucchies, 20 liters of codeine, seven deep freezers, and 10 kg of cannabis.
Meanwhile, agents pursuing the Nigerian fentanyl opioid syndicate have been praised by Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (ret. ), the agency’s chairman and chief executive officer, for the effectiveness of their operations thus far.
He also praised their colleagues in Adamawa, Lagos, Osun, and Ogun for the arrests and seizures of the previous week and urged them and their fellow citizens throughout the nation not to give up on their efforts to rid the country of drug misuse and illicit drug trafficking.