The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, also known as NDLEA, caught two businessmen and a nurse from Canada for trying to move drugs like cocaine and cannabis at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
This is part of their big effort to stop people from sneaking drugs into the country. They have already found more than N7 billion worth of drugs at various seaports.
A 51-year-old man named Ihejirika Okechukwu Emmanuel was caught on October 15, 2024. He was getting ready to fly to Thailand when they found out he had swallowed five big wraps of cocaine. These wraps of drugs weighed 400 grams. Ihejirika said, “I needed the money from delivering the drug in Thailand to help my fish business.”
Another man, 26-year-old Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory, was caught on October 17, 2024. He was coming back from Brazil. They found out that he had swallowed 30 wraps of cocaine. However, he only released 29 in Ethiopia and gave them to someone else. He admitted, “I was supposed to get N2.5 million for moving the drug.”
Canadian Nurse
A nurse from Canada with a Nigerian name, Usman Grace Khadijat Olami, was caught on October 4, 2024, when she came from Toronto through Paris.
The officers found 70 parcels of a strong kind of cannabis in her bag. This cannabis weighed 35.7 kg. During questioning, Olami said her boyfriend asked her to bring the drugs to Nigeria. “My boyfriend told me to bring these drugs,” she said.
Big Drug Find at Seaports
NDLEA workers also made big drug finds at the Apapa and Onne seaports. On October 15, 2024, they found 162,351 bottles of a syrup that has codeine at Apapa seaport. They worked together with the Nigeria Customs Service to do this.
At the Port Harcourt Port Complex in Onne, they found over 7 million pills called Tapentadol and Carisoprodol, worth N3.6 billion, in a container. They also found 15.6 million pills and 337,000 bottles of a syrup with codeine. All together, the drugs were worth N7.1 billion.
All over Nigeria, NDLEA is working hard to enforce drug laws. In Bauchi, a person was arrested with 76,600 tramadol pills hidden in a car. In Ondo, three people were caught with 672 kg of cannabis. In Edo state, the agency destroyed a massive 10,590 kg of cannabis on a farm and arrested several suspects.
In Lagos, they caught Andrew Joseph Anoriode with 3 kg of meth and 241 kg of cannabis. They also discovered a place where meth is made and took chemicals used to make methamphetamine.
Important Information
The NDLEA has improved its efforts to fight drug smuggling with a new Marine Command Headquarters in Lagos. The British government donated this facility.
This new command center will help catch people who smuggle drugs through water and seaports. NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), talked about their recent successes, like catching over 61,000 kg of drugs and arresting 41 people.