By Daniel Tyokua
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has halted efforts s to smuggle into Nigeria 98 cartons containing 5,122,900 pills of Tramadol 225mg with an estimated value of N3.7 billion.
A statement by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, Sunday in Abuja, said that a suspect was arrested at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos in connection with the drug bust.
He said that the attempt was foiled through the robust synergy between men of the Nigeria Customs Service and NDLEA officers at the airport as well as those at the DHL cargo warehouse.
“Preliminary findings revealed that the consignments were imported from India and Pakistan, while some of the seized consignments had Freetown, Sierra Leone as final destination, ” he said.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Bauchi State have recovered a total of 6,265,080 pills of opioids from three suspects: Emmanuel Onyebuchi, 32; Uche Iyida, 33; and Chinedu Ezeanyim, 32.
This, he said followed their arrest alongside a truck driver and his assistant at Shopping Complex along Maiduguri Bye-Pass in Bauchi, on Wednesday.
He added that a follow up search of the residence of Iyida on Friday, led to the recovery of 999,500 tablets of Exol-5 at a shop close to the market at Hong Road, Gombi, Adamawa.
Babafemi said that 46,000 capsules of tramadol were seized from another suspect, Paul Ajaegbu, 36, along Owerri -Aba road in Imo, on July 17.
“Same suspect had earlier been arrested, precisely on February 9, 2023, for the same offence,” he said.
