The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has re-arrested a notorious drug trafficker, Nwobodo Chidiebere Basil, barely a year after his conviction for drug trafficking.
NDLEA operatives nabbed him following the interception of seventy-five parcels of cocaine weighing one point five kilograms, concealed in factory-sealed sachets of cold-water starch bound for the United Kingdom at the export shed of Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
According to the Director Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, three cargo agents were initially arrested during the operation on December twentieth, while further investigations uncovered Nwobodo as the mastermind behind the shipment.
He was subsequently arrested the next day at a relaxation centre in Ikeja. NDLEA records show that Nwobodo had been convicted in 2023 for trafficking over thirty kilograms of methamphetamine concealed in custard containers and was sentenced to five years imprisonment with an option of a seven-million-naira fine, which he paid before returning to the same crime.
In separate operations across the country, NDLEA operatives destroyed large cannabis warehouses in Ara forest, Ekiti State, where hundreds of kilograms of the substance were recovered.
In Edo State, nearly nine hundred kilograms of compressed cannabis were intercepted from vehicles along the Igara-Auchi road.
Similar raids in Cross River State led to the arrest of suspects and the seizure of large quantities of cannabis, while another female suspect was arrested along the Abuja–Abaji expressway with the same substance.
Further arrests were recorded in Lagos, Taraba and Gombe States, where NDLEA operatives intercepted suspects with cannabis and large quantities of controlled pharmaceutical drugs, including tramadol and pentazocine.
Meanwhile, a forty-seven-year-old businessman wanted in connection with the seizure of cannabis at the Tin Can Seaport in Lagos has also been arrested in Apapa following a follow-up operation.
The NDLEA says the arrests underscore its renewed resolve to dismantle drug trafficking networks and prevent illicit drugs from reaching local and international markets.
Reporting By Nosa Aituamen