The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted a 20,000-litre fuel tanker allegedly being used to transport illicit drugs along the Akoko-Lokoja Expressway in Ondo State.
NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi disclosed this in a statement on Sunday while giving an account of the agency’s operations across the country in the past week.
According to Babafemi, the tanker had become notorious for evading arrest before it was eventually intercepted on Friday. The driver reportedly abandoned the vehicle at a church premises in Ugbe Akoko and escaped into a nearby bush.
“A search of the tanker revealed a false compartment concealing 165 bags of cannabis weighing 2,145kg alongside its legitimate fuel cargo destined for Jos, Plateau state,” the statement reads.
Babafemi described the discovery as one of the most brazen drug seizures recorded by the agency during the week.
In another operation in Lagos, the NDLEA arrested a 34-year-old man accused of masterminding a plan to send 1.2kg of cocaine to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, concealed inside phone chargers.
The suspect, Dunu Ebubechukwu, was arrested on Friday at the Trade Fair Market in the Ojo area of Lagos, where he was allegedly posing as a herbal tea dealer.
Babafemi said Ebubechukwu confessed to masterminding previous illicit drug shipments and discarded his telephone SIM card after learning that the latest consignment had been intercepted.
The agency said Ebubechukwu had previously been arrested in 2011 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, after he ingested 900 grammes of cocaine and 130 grammes of heroin while attempting to travel to Austria using the name Dunu Chukwuyenre Enoch.
He was subsequently prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. Babafemi said he later changed his name to Dunu Bethel Ebubechukwu and returned to illicit drug activities.
At the Lagos airport, the agency also intercepted 966,200 tablets of Tramadol 225mg valued at more than N1.1 billion. The drugs were reportedly concealed among thrift trousers in a 21-carton shipment from Pakistan.
Another seizure involved 57.80kg of loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, with an estimated street value of more than N173 million.
The consignment had reportedly been concealed in cartons of disposable hand gloves in a shipment from Singapore that had remained unclaimed for weeks. NDLEA officers, Customs officials and other security agencies jointly examined the shipment on Thursday.
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More Arrests In Lagos, Adamawa, Ekiti
At Tincan Port in Lagos, three suspects identified as Yashim Dauji, Larry Ifeanyi and Joseph Moji were arrested following the seizure of 842.54kg of cannabis-infused cookies.
The agency also intercepted another 598.08kg, comprising 890 packets, of similar drug-laced cookies and gummies in a 40-foot container at the port. The consignment was linked to the suspects already in custody.
Elsewhere in Lagos, NDLEA officers recovered 2,386.9kg of cannabis, 350 grammes of cocaine, more than 100kg of various grades of tramadol, 9.7 litres of codeine syrup and 4kg of rohypnol in the Gbaji area.
Two suspects, Damilare Francis and Emeh Emmanuel, were also arrested in Agbara with 720kg of cannabis.
On the Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi State, three suspects — Saidu Mustapha, 35; Zaharadeen Salisu, 29; and AbdulSalam Abdullahi, 25 — were arrested with 636kg of cannabis allegedly concealed in chicken manure inside a bus travelling from Owo in Ondo State to Jos in Plateau State.
In Adamawa, Babafemi said 864,000 tramadol pills were recovered from a residence in Jimeta, Yola North LGA, linked to a fleeing suspect, Patrick KC Frank.
According to the agency, Frank’s vehicle rammed into an NDLEA patrol vehicle before he escaped from the scene.
In Taraba State, 58-year-old Kelechi Unachukwu was arrested along Zaki-Biam Road in Wukari LGA with more than 109kg of assorted controlled medicines. The substances included tramadol, diazepam, pentazocine, phenobarbital, exol-5, nitrazepam, bromazepam and pregabalin.
The drugs were allegedly being transported in his vehicle from Onitsha, Anambra State, to Yola, Adamawa State.
Babafemi further disclosed that NDLEA officers intercepted a truck carrying bags of cement along the Zaria-Kano Expressway in Kaduna State and recovered 1,179kg of skunk.
In Bauchi State, a 25-year-old suspect, Hamza Dahiru, was arrested during a follow-up operation after 322.5kg of cannabis was seized in Deba town, Gombe State, on Tuesday.
In Ekiti State, Chuks Alex, 50, and Asafa Adekunle, 35, were arrested after NDLEA officers discovered and destroyed a four-hectare cannabis farm in the Efon-Alaaye forest.
The operation also resulted in the recovery of 117kg of already harvested skunk.
Meanwhile, in Enugu State, 20-year-old Obinna David was arrested at Ugbema Junction on Saturday with 40,590 capsules of tramadol.