The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has caught two people trying to send drugs hidden in packages to London and Congo. Mrs. Adewunmi Adebola Dorcas, a woman from Ibadan, and Arinze Ora, who sells car parts, were arrested because of this. Let’s break down what happened.
On Friday, September 6, 2024, NDLEA officers at the Lagos airport found a cargo box heading to the United Kingdom. Inside the box, they discovered 924 bottles of codeine syrup and 5,250 tablets of Rohypnol. The drugs were hidden in boxes marked as foodstuffs.
NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi shared this news on Sunday. They arrested a freight agent named Owojori Olanrewaju Sunday, who was trying to send the cargo. He told the officers that Mrs. Adewunmi’s son, Adewunmi Akeem Temitope, gave him the package from Ibadan.
The next day, the NDLEA caught Mrs. Adewunmi in Ibadan. She was found at her business where she sells and exports foodstuff. Owojori admitted that he had worked for Mrs. Adewunmi before, earning N2,411,000 for this job and N2.1 million for a previous one.
In another case, on September 11, 2024, NDLEA officers at the same airport shed found drugs hidden in packages of car parts and custard powder. The cargo was going to Congo Brazzaville on Ethiopian Airlines. This diligent search led to the discovery of 300 grams of cocaine hidden inside containers of Checker Powder Custard.
A follow-up operation led to the arrest of Arinze Ora. He owns Shop 12, Block 7 at Aspamda Trade Fair Auto Parts Wing in Lagos. Babafemi said further investigations showed that Ora was the one sending the drugs.
In a special operation on September 10, NDLEA caught two brothers, Ikechukwu Ikeabba and Ugochukwu Ikeabba, who were behind sending drugs to Vietnam by having people swallow them. This arrest happened after NDLEA arrested another man, Ibeanusi Solomon Nosike, on August 8. Nosike was caught at the Lagos airport and later removed 68 wraps of cocaine from his body.
On August 12, another man named Paul Okwuy Mbadugha was arrested at the Abuja airport with 88 wraps of cocaine. Mbadugha was heading to Vietnam via Doha. Babafemi said that the man had swallowed the cocaine, which weighed about 1.710 kilograms.
Meanwhile, in Gombe State, NDLEA officers caught three men carrying 2,490,000 pills of tramadol hidden in bags of salt. This happened on September 14. On September 10 in Kaduna, a man named Idris Adamu was caught with 41.5 kilograms of cannabis, and two others, Godiya Sekyen Jikuk and Yusuf Umaru, were caught in Ekiti State with 73.6 kilograms of cannabis on September 11.
In Bauchi, on September 13, the NDLEA found 208,920 pills of tramadol and diazepam with Chinedu Asadu, a man aged 35. Later, on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, they seized 104 kilograms of cannabis from two men named Abba Abdullahi and Mustapha Yahaya on September 10.
Additionally, on the same day, NDLEA officers at the Tincan port in Lagos found 350,000 bottles of codeine syrup hidden in containers shipped from India. These containers were part of those selected for a thorough check.
The NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), praised his team for their hard work. He said their efforts to arrest drug criminals and seize drugs are really crucial. He encouraged them to keep up the good work in reducing the supply and demand for drugs.