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NDLEA busts cocaine syndicates, recovers multi-billion-naira drugs in nationwide raids+Photos
NDLEA busts cocaine syndicates, recovers multi-billion-naira drugs in nationwide raids+Photos
. Seizes US, UK-bound large consignments in automobile parts, cloths, arrests 4; intercepts shipments of Loud from Canada at Tincan, Lagos airport
Multi-billion-naira worth of cocaine concealed in heavy duty automobile pivot shafts, and Ghanaian fabric, Kente, among others have been recovered in a nationwide intelligence-led operation by officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.
NDLEA busts cocaine syndicates, recovers multi-billion-naira drugs in nationwide raids
2.32 kilograms of cocaine concealed in Ghanaian traditional kente materials going to the United Kingdom were intercepted at a courier firm in Lagos on Monday 5th August 2024, 10.494kg of same class A drug buried in heavy duty pivot shafts heading to the United States were recovered at the same logistics company after the NDLEA sniffer dogs fished out the automobile spare parts containing the illicit drug, bringing the total weight of cocaine seized in the two shipments to 12.814 kilograms.
In the same vein, five other consignments going to the US, UK and Canada were also intercepted at the courier firm in Lagos on Friday 9th August 2024. They include 517 grams of cocaine in clothing materials; different quantities of pentazocine injection, promethazine injection and cocodamol pills, all heading to the UK as well as 297 pills of tramadol 225mg going to Canada. In a different logistics company in Lagos, NDLEA operatives recovered 21 parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 10kg coming from the US and meant for delivery in Abuja.
In another intelligence-led operation, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday 7th August arrested a member of a cocaine trafficking network, Obiora Joseph Agudosi, at Alafia Orile, Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos while attempting to move 9.00kg of cocaine to Onitsha, Anambra state.
Two members of another cocaine syndicate based in Nnewi and Oba town, Anambra state were also arrested on Thursday 8th August in a follow up operation following the seizure of their consignments in a GUO transport company bus at Benin, Edo state same day.
While the bus driver, Harrison Mbachu, 44, was arrested at Benin tollgate with a total of 2.865kg cocaine, Izuchkwu Arinze, 40, was picked at Nnewi town while attempting to collect his own consignment of 1.748kg cocaine and 514 grams sodium bicarbonate, with Ameachi Okoro, 39, arrested while trying to pick his own 1.117kg cocaine at Oba town.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives at Tincan seaport Lagos on Wednesday 7th August intercepted 532 parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 265.25kg in a black Toyota Sienna bus, which is one of the three vehicles in a container marked MSMU 6029570 coming from Montreal, Canada.
The seizure was made during 100% joint examination with men of Customs Service and other stakeholders. The following day, Thursday 8th August, the operatives recorded yet another seizure of 75 parcels of same substance weighing 37.5kg in a container marked FSCU-9274613, that came from Canada.
In Adamawa state, NDLEA operatives on Thursday 8th August with the support of men of operation Farauta Sector 3, Mayo Belwa arrested 49-year-old Joseph Peter with 425 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 291.200kg in his Toyota Camry car marked Lagos KSF 381 HM. He claimed he was bringing the consignment from Edo state to deliver in Yola, Adamawa State.
NDLEA busts cocaine syndicates, recovers multi-billion-naira drugs in nationwide raids
While two suspects: Adekunle Sunday Adebayo, 50, and Yahaya Mamuda, 35, were arrested at Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano on Tuesday 6th August with 29.5kg cannabis, NDLEA operatives in Lagos recovered 1,169 kilograms of the same psychoactive substance from a bus along Orchid road, Ajah on Sunday 4th August.
No less than 1,230.00kg cannabis was destroyed on three hectares of farmland at Ikeje forest, Edimogo village, Igalamela/ Odolu LGA, Kogi state on Friday 9th August by NDLEA officers supported by men of the Nigerian Army while the owner, Danjuma Maji, 40, was arrested.
With the same drive, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization activities in schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week.
These include: WADA enlightenment lecture for women at Fowewe Sofuwa Islamic Centre, Saki, Oyo state; WADA sensitisation lecture and inauguration of community drug control committee at Nnando community, Anambra state; WADA advocacy visit to the Emir of Ilorin, HRH Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, Kwara state; and WADA sensitisation lecture to members of Ansaru-ud-deen Muslim Society of Nigeria in Ado Ekiti, among others.
While commending the officers and men of the Special Operations Unit, Tincan, Lagos, Edo, Kano, Kogi, and Adamawa Commands as well as those of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations, DOGI, for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) urged them and their compatriots across the country to continue with their current balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 24.23% in March 2025, according to the official government data source, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The rise in the country’s inflation rate, from 23.18% back in February 2025 to 24.23% in March 2025, reflected a major increase in the rising commodity and energy costs in the last few weeks.
According to the March 2025 Consumer Price Index (CPI) Report which measures the inflation rate released by the government agency on Tuesday, the country’s food inflation rate was 21.79% year-on-year in March 2025.
The food inflation rate, however, showed a decrease compared to the food inflation rate of 23.51% recorded in February 2025.
Economists had predicted that the country’s inflation rate which decreased minimally in February would rise when the Dangote Refinery and the state-run NNPCL got entangled in a petrol price war that culminated in the temporary termination of a naira-for crude agreement between the two oil companies and the subsequent increase in the pump price of petrol.
Some observers had also said the minimal reduction in the prices of food commodities experienced earlier in February was not sustainable, attributing the temporary decline in the prices of food to the importation intervention of the Federal Government.
Food and commodity inflation have skyrocketed as Nigerians battle what can pass for the worst cost of living crisis since the country’s independence over six decades ago, a development that economic wizards have attributed to President Bola Tinubu’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the forex rates.
Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State has apologised to the people of Bassa Local Government Area (LGA) for the failure of government and security agencies to protect lives and properties.
Fifty-one persons were gunned down early Monday in the Zikke community of the LGA, with houses razed and many displaced about two weeks after a similar attack led to the killing of scores of persons in Bokkos Local Government Area.
Less than two days after the most recent assault, Governor Mutfwang apologised for the government’s inability to protect the people.
Fifty-one persons were gunned down early Monday in the Zikke community of the LGA, with houses razed and many displaced about two weeks after a similar attack led to the killing of scores of persons in Bokkos Local Government Area.
Less than two days after the most recent assault, Governor Mutfwang apologised for the government’s inability to protect the people.
The governor said this on Tuesday at the palace of the Paramount Ruler in Miango.
“I will tell you the truth: I have been crying since yesterday because I had trusted God that all the arrangements were put in place, that this will not happen again. We have made investments in security,” he said.
But like all human arrangements, sometimes they fail. I want to admit that on Sunday night into Monday morning, we failed you. Please, forgive me.”
He urged the people not to relent in their efforts to secure their communities and ensure that they complement security agencies’ efforts by providing vital information for intelligence gathering and expose the antics of the criminals.
Governor Mutfwang, in the company of security chiefs and members of the state executive council, was in Zikke community to commiserate with the people on the death of over fifty persons killed in Monday’s attacks.
The Paramount Ruler of Irigwe land, Ronku Aka, who is the Brangwe of Irigwe, urged the government to come to the aid of the communities with the provision of social amenities in the area.
The governor and the entourage also went to see some of the families who lost their loved ones in the attack. The victims have been buried just as members of the community demanded action to stem the rising wave of insecurity in the state.
Plateau State has been a hotbed of attacks, but the renewed spate of attacks adds a fresh layer of twist to the decades-long crisis rocking the North-Central state.
After the most recent assaults, President Bola Tinubu ordered security agencies to fish out the masterminds, describing the attacks as condemnable.
While experts have linked the lingering Plateau crisis to farmers-herders tussle for resources, Governor Muftwang said it was sponsored and genocidal.
According to him, over 64 communities in the state have been taken over by gunmen.
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