NDLEA Foils UK-Bound Drug Shipment, Arrests Suspects at Lagos Airport; Uncovers Arms Cache in Lagos Raid

Nosa Osula Aituamen

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intensified its crackdown on drug trafficking across Nigeria, making significant arrests and seizures in recent weeks.

In a bid to export 3.5 kilograms of “Loud” (a synthetic cannabis strain) to the United Kingdom, two suspects, Adakole Sunday and Austin Balogun, were apprehended at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos.

According to the NDLEA spokesman Mr Femi Babafemi in a statement, the drugs were concealed within a duvet.

Further investigations he said, revealed that Balogun, the primary agent, had received N700,000 for the shipment, a portion of which was used for export expenses and the remainder for personal expenses.

Giving further breakdown of their activities, Mr. Babafemi stated that, in another operation, NDLEA operatives raided a hideout in the Igbo Olumo area of Ikorodu, Lagos, arresting Joseph Oluwasegun Adewale and Biodun Adelakun.

Authorities seized seven liters of “skuchies” (a new psychoactive substance), three locally made double-barrel rifles, one locally made double-barrel pistol, one English-made pistol, one locally made single-barrel rifle, three cartridges, one empty 9mm cartridge, and an iron-head axe.

A separate raid in the notorious Akala area of Mushin, Lagos, yielded 47 kilograms of skunk and 25.46 kilograms of Nitrous Oxide (“laughing gas”).

In Ekiti State, Adepoju Taiwo was arrested in Ado-Ekiti with 1.950 kilograms of Canadian Loud. In Kwara State, Auwal Sani was apprehended in Bode Saadu with 50,000 pills of tramadol 225mg, weighing 36.56 kilograms.

In Kano, a Nigerien national, Abubakar Lami, along with Abba Sani and Auwal Aliyu, were arrested in Gadar Tamburawa with 13.1 kilograms of skunk and 125 liters of “suck and die” (another new psychoactive substance).

While NDLEA officers destroyed a cannabis plantation in Gefen Kasa, Dawakin Kudu council area, and arrested Sabo Ali Muhammad in connection with the farm.