The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted 3.26 million pills of tramadol concealed in multiple trucks and arrested several suspects as part of an ongoing crackdown on a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating across West Africa.
In a statement issued on Sunday, NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi said the trucks were intercepted during separate operations carried out on June 21, July 2 and July 4.
According to him, the intelligence-driven operation targeted a criminal network allegedly smuggling tramadol from Togo through the Benin Republic into Nigeria.
“Ongoing efforts to dismantle a transnational drug trafficking syndicate smuggling tramadol from Togo, through Benin Republic into Nigeria have yielded another success with the interception of two long trailers used to move One Million Six Hundred and Thirty (1,630,000) pills of tramadol 250mg concealed in fabricated compartments of the trucks across multiple borders into Lagos,” the statement said.
Babafemi explained that the latest seizure came only days after NDLEA operatives recovered 558,900 tramadol pills hidden in a specially constructed compartment beneath a truck entering Lagos through the same Togo-Benin corridor.
He disclosed that one of the intercepted trailers, which was heading to Kano, contained 853,000 tramadol 250mg pills hidden beneath the cargo floor. The truck driver, 22-year-old Jabir Kabiru, was arrested on July 2.
Two days later, another trailer travelling along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway toward Kano was intercepted after intelligence reports linked it to the syndicate.
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“A total of 777,000 pills of tramadol 250mg concealed in a fabricated compartment beneath the cargo floor of the truck were evacuated and the 22-year-old driver Muhammed Nuhu arrested,” the statement added.
“Investigations revealed that all three trucks and consignments intercepted on 2lst June, 2nd July and 4th July belong to the same transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria axis.”
In a separate operation at the import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, NDLEA officers intercepted two consignments of Canadian Loud, a synthetic cannabis strain, weighing a combined 4.70 kilograms.
The shipments, which arrived from Canada aboard British Airways and Ethiopian Airlines flights on June 24 and July 3, reportedly bore the inscription “Odugwu.”
Babafemi said cargo agents Ali Rotimi Samson and Orimolade Oluwagbenga were initially arrested before another suspect, Edeh Onyeamachi Stanislus, was apprehended while attempting to collect the consignments.
He added that the alleged owner of the shipment, 44-year-old businesswoman Chioma Nneka Mokeme, was later arrested on July 7 in collaboration with the Nigeria Police Area C Command in Surulere, Lagos.
“Chioma who claimed she is into printing business said her friend Agbons Collins who lives in Canada introduced her into the criminal trade,” the statement said.
Elsewhere, NDLEA operatives in Rivers State arrested 80-year-old Chika Ugwoji in Ahoada after recovering 800 grams of skunk from him.
In Edo State, officers raided a warehouse along Sapele Road in Benin City and arrested a couple, Christian Chukwuka, 32, and Nwanneka Christian, 33. The raid led to the seizure of 22 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5 kilograms and compressed blocks of Canadian Loud weighing 192.67 kilograms.
The agency also arrested 38-year-old Hajara Abdullahi, a Chadian national, and her Nigerian associate, Abdulkarim Jidda, 44, in Lagos after linking them to the seizure of 50,000 tramadol 225mg pills intercepted in Kogi State on July 12.