By Ibironke Ariyo
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have uncovered and dismantled a syndicate that sponsors pilgrims to serve as couriers to move cocaine to Saudi Arabia during pilgrimage.
A statement by the Director of Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi yesterday in Abuja, stated that the recovery followed the arrest of leaders of the cartel in Kano.
Babafemi said the arrest of the operatives effected the arrest of the kingpins on Tuesday and Wednesday in Kano.
This, he said, was a follow-up to the arrest of two pilgrims at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, (MAKIA) Kano on May 26.
This, he added, was during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airline flight ET 940 to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“The interdiction of the intending pilgrims at the NDLEA final screening point at the Kano airport was based on credible intelligence.
“When they were taken for scanning, the result confirmed ingestion of illicit substances.
“They were subsequently placed on excretion observation during which they excreted 45 wraps of cocaine each, bringing the total for both to 90 pellets with a total weight of 1.04kg.
“Investigation soon unraveled their sponsors as leaders of a notorious drug trafficking network, which specialises in trafficking illicit drugs to Saudi Arabia.
“A swift follow-up operation was carried out, and they were arrested,” he said.
In a related development, NDLEA operatives at the Kano airport on Wednesday, intercepted a 60-year-old businessman during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR1432 to Iran.
Babafemi said his body scan confirmed he ingested illicit substances as a result of which he was placed on excretion observation during which he excreted 65 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.41kg.
In another operation in Kano, the NDLEA operatives on patrol along Kano- Maiduguri road Friday, intercepted two men with 900,000 dollars cash suspected to be counterfeit.
Babafemi said the suspects and the exhibit would be transferred to the appropriate agency for further investigation.
In another development, the NDLEA said it has intercepted seven watch-listed containers with N9.3 billion worth of opioids and codeine based syrup at the Port Harcourt Port Complex (PHPC) in Onne.
According to Babafemi, the containers were positioned for joint examination by the NDLEA, NIgeria Custom Service (NCS) and other security agencies, adding that the examinations was conducted between May 28 and May 30, during which 825,200 bottles of codeine based syrup and tramadol worth N5.8 billion in street value were seized.
He also said a total of 5.1million pills of opioids especially tapentadol 225mg worth N3.5 billion were recovered. “This brings the combined street value of the opioids to N9.3 billion,” he said.
Also, a total of 390 compressed blocks of skunk, a strain of cannabis, was recovered by the NDLEA operatives.
To Babafemi, the drugs, weighing 275.300kgs, were recovered from a parked Toyota Sienna vehicle marked YLA-408GG along Ngurore-Yola road, Adamawa on May 27.
He said the NDLEA operatives in Kwara State on May 31 arrested a notorious female drug dealer, Alhaja Mutiat Abdul-Fatai at Oja Oba area of Ilorin.
This, he said, was where various quantities of opioids including tramadol, flunitrazepam and codeine-based syrup were seized from her.
Meanwhile, the War Against Drug Abuse, (WADA), social advocacy activities by the NDLEA Commands equally continued across the country in the past week.
Some of them include WADA sensitisation lecture delivered to students and staff of Government Day Senior Secondary School, Kwasarawa, Katsina; Corpus Christi College, Achi, Enugu; Epignosis Standard College, Onitsha, Anambra;
Others are Government Girls Secondary School, Utai, Wudil LGA, Kano; and Government Girls Secondary School, Calabar, Cross River.
Babafemi quoted the NDLEA Chairman, retired Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa as commending the officers and men of PHPC, Kwara, and Adamawa commands of the agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week.
Marwa equally praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for pursuing a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
