The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Friday 23rd August intercepted two containers of codeine syrup which came from Mundra port in India.
It’s of Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi in a statement issued Sunday no fewer than 1,596 cartons of codeine-based syrup containing 319, 200 bottles of the opioid worth N2,234,400,000.00 in street value were recovered from the containers during a joint examination with other port stakeholders.
He added: “Two ladies were arrested by operatives in Edo state for online sales of illicit drugs.
“While Martha Owotorofa, 26, was nabbed at Kada Plaza, Benin city with quantities of Canadian Loud, Odion Uzordinma, 21, was arrested at Ugbowo area of the city with 30 cups of cookies and 17 slices of cake, all laced with illicit substances.
“A raid operation at Oghada village, Uhunmwonde local government area of the state on Tuesday 20th August led to the arrest of Saturday Edobor, 50, with 288.8kg cannabis.”
Babafemi further revealed that in Lagos, a suspect, Godwill Davidson was on Wednesday 21st August arrested with 3,834 bottles of codeine syrup; 5,200 pills of Co-Codamol; and 11, 880 tablets of Rohypnol in Mushin area of the state.
Also, another suspect, Yahaya Ibrahim, 23, was nabbed by operatives along Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway, Kogi state same day with 42,000 pills of tramadol coming from Asaba, Delta State enroute Potiskum, Yobe state.
Similarly, Babafemi stressed that two suspects: Feranmi Bankole, 25, and Fredrick Tobiloba, 25, were on Tuesday 20th August arrested at Pariz Lounge, Adeoyo area in Ibadan metropolis, Oyo State following intelligence.
According to him, Recovered from them were 267.5 litres of skuchies, a mixture of black currant and assorted illicit drugs and 18 grams of Canadian Loud.
Babafemi noted that an Onitsha, Anambra state based-businessman, Ibeanusi Nosike, has excreted 68 wraps of cocaine after 12 days of excretion observation following his arrest at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Lagos by the operatives.
He said the 36-year-old Ibeanusi was arrested in the early hours of Thursday 8th August 2024 at the old domestic terminal of the Lagos airport while attempting to board the first flight out of Lagos to Abuja where he was scheduled to join a Qatar Airways flight to Vietnam at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at about 10am same day.
Babafemi stressed that the suspect who came under NDLEA surveillance following intelligence had arrived Lagos from his base in Onitsha, Anambra state the previous day, 7th August and lodged in a hotel where he swallowed the 68 wraps of cocaine before heading to the airport for a 6:30am flight the following morning.
He was thereafter intercepted by NDLEA operatives who moved him into excretion observation where he spent the next 12 days excreting the cocaine pellets weighing 1.282 kilograms.