A wanted 60-year-old drug kingpin, Okpara Paul Chigozie, has been arrested by the operatives of a special operations unit of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The arrest ends seven years of evading the long arm of the law, even as he was caught attempting to ship large quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine to the Southeast and other parts of the country.
According to the Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, in a statement, the suspect who has been on the wanted list of NDLEA since 2019 was eventually nabbed at his hideout in Isheri, Lagos following the interception of some of his consignments.
Explaining how the suspect was achieved, Mr. Femi said, in the early morning operation, a team of NDLEA officers acting on credible intelligence arrested one of Okpara’s couriers, 51-year-old Achebe Kenneth Nnamdi while heading to Onitsha, Anambra state in a white Toyota Sienna vehicle.
The agency’s sniffer dogs were subsequently brought in to search the vehicle and 7.6 kilograms of cocaine and 900 grams of methamphetamine were found hidden in body compartments of the space bus.
While a follow up operation, Mr. Babafemi said, was promptly carried out at Okpara’s hideout in Isheri where additional 1.8kg cocaine and 1.3kg methamphetamine were recovered from his residence.
In other operations, NDLEA operatives in a joint operation with Aviation Security personnel of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) at the Lagos International Airport recovered 7,790 pills of tramadol and rohypnol from the luggage of an Italy-bound passenger, Omoregie Nice Uyiosa.
The suspect who was going to Italy via Istanbul on Turkish Airlines flight claimed he purchased the drugs himself, hoping to sell them in Italy at higher prices.
In another arrest at the Lagos airport, NDLEA operatives at the export shed also intercepted 17 parcels of skunk, a strain of cannabis, weighing 1.70kg concealed in packs of popular cereal, Golden Morn, going to Pakistan as part of a consolidated cargo.
A suspect, Chioba Robert Uchenna who presented the consignment for shipment was arrested.
Elsewhere in Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Saturday 19th July raided Sarah Sam Hotels located at 115 Ogudu road in Kosofe where different party drugs are being distributed and sold.
The raid followed credible intelligence and surveillance which confirmed a suspect Obayemi Oyetade as the arrowhead of the drug network.
At the time of the operation, the statement says, 1.30kg Chocolate Cannabis, 900grams of gummies and 22.9grams of skunk were recovered from Obayemi’s room in the hotel, which is a 20-room facility run as a family business, housing his mother and siblings.
Other items recovered from the hotel include three vehicles, while three suspects, Onyeka Madu, Monday Nwadishi and Emmanuel Madu were during an intelligence-led raid in Kaduna State, where 742.866 kilograms of skunk, and Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis were seized from them.
Reporting by Nosa Aituamen