Babafemi said the suspect was preparing a recruited courier to swallow 93 pellets of cocaine meant for distribution in Italy when he was arrested.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said that its operatives have arrested a drug lord while giving mule 93 cocaine wraps to swallow in a Lagos hotel.
The operatives also recovered 12.4 million pills of opioids and 6,921.5kg of skunk. The agency said it destroyed 33 hectares of cannabis farms in Ondo and Edo and intercepted a shipment of Colorado from Canada.
The NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, who made this known in a statement on Sunday stated that the alleged drug kingpin who specialises in sponsoring young Nigerians to traffic Class A drugs to Europe, especially Italy, was arrested when operatives of the agency stormed his hotel room in the Okota area of Lagos late on Friday.
Babafemi said the suspect was preparing a recruited courier to swallow 93 pellets of cocaine meant for distribution in Italy when he was arrested.
Babafemi stated that the 48-year-old drug kingpin identified as Charles Uwagbale, had recruited a 35-year-old Uju Dominic, from his base in Italy with a deal to come to Nigeria, ingest pellets of cocaine on Friday and return to Italy on Saturday.
“True to plan, upon the arrival in Nigeria, the mule was lodged in Golden Heaven Hotel located at Enoma Street, off Ago-Palace way, Okota, Isolo, Lagos where Uwagbale brought 93 wraps of the Class A drug for him to swallow at about 23:45p.m on Friday night.
“They were in the process when NDLEA operatives who had been on their trail following credible intelligence stormed their hotel room, arrested both and recovered the drug exhibits with a total weight of 1.427 kilograms,” the statement said.
The NDLEA spokesperson said that operatives of the Lagos State Command of the agency who made the arrest and seizure on Thursday raided Akala in the Mushin area of the state where they recovered 37.5kg of cannabis from the home of a fleeing suspect.
Babafemi said, “Meanwhile, attempts to smuggle 98 cartons containing 5,122,900 pills of Tramadol 225mg with an estimated street value of about N3.7 billion, into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, have been thwarted 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.”
He said that preliminary findings revealed that the consignments were imported from India and Pakistan while some of the seized consignments had Freetown, Sierra Leone as their final destination.
Similarly, operatives of NDLEA in Bauchi state recovered a total of 6,265,080 pills of opioids from three suspects identified as Emmanuel Onyebuchi, Uche Iyida and Chinedu Ezeanyim, following their arrest alongside a truck driver and his assistant at a shopping complex in Maiduguri Bye-Pass, Bauchi town on Wednesday and the subsequent follow-up search of the residence of Iyida on Friday.
According to Babafemi, no fewer than 999,500 tablets of Exol-5 were also recovered by operatives of the agency from a shop close to the market at Hong Road, Gombi in Adamawa State on Friday, while 46,000 capsules of tramadol were seized from a suspect identified as Paul Ajaegbu, along Owerri-Aba Road in Imo State on Monday.
He added that the same suspect had earlier been arrested, on February 9, 2023, for the same offence.
In the same vein, Babafemi said in Ondo State, NDLEA operatives stormed the Ofosu Forest where they destroyed 29 hectares of cannabis farms on Thursday, adding that the quartet of Osamezu George Chukwuemeka, who owns the farm, his wife, Kate Osamezu, Agboola Wasiu and Mustapha Sanni, were arrested during the operation, while 118.5kg of processed cannabis was recovered from the farm.
He said in another raid of the warehouse of a suspect at Elegbeka in the Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State, not less than 107 jumbo bags of the same illicit substance weighing 1,132.5kg were recovered on Monday.
Similarly, operatives of the agency in Sokoto State arrested a suspect identified as Charles Nwankwo, with 610kg of cannabis in the Tamaje area of the state on Friday, while their counterparts in Yobe State on the same day also arrested a fleeing suspect identified as Shaibu Musa, in Dawasa while he was offering them a bribe of N500,000 following the seizure of 36kg of skunk in his house on Wednesday.
Also in Edo State, operatives of the agency on Monday raided the Utese Forest in the Ovia North East Local Government Area of the state where they arrested one Victor Asukwo Jack, with 59 bags of processed cannabis sativa weighing 640kg.
The NDLEA spokesperson said that Jack’s two cannabis farms measuring 1.489895 hectares and 2.445295 hectares were destroyed, while one Endurance Chukwuma was also arrested with seven bags of processed cannabis sativa weighing 68kg.
The NDLEA said his cannabis farm measuring 0.254324 hectares was also destroyed.
Babafemi said a total of 273kg cannabis was intercepted in a Toyota Sienna Vehicle marked RBC 451 CM on Wednesday at Ogida area of Benin City, Edo State capital and a suspect, Lucky Oriakhi, was arrested.
He said that operatives of the agency also seized 48,380 pills of tramadol in a commercial bus marked KAK 66 XA along Ewohimi road, heading to Kabba in Kogi state and arrested the driver, Ibrahim John.
In Nasarawa State, two suspects identified as Abubakar Suleiman and Shehu Garba (aka Shagari), were arrested along Keffi-Akwanga road on Tuesday in a Peugeot J5 vehicle loaded with 1,608.4 kilograms of cannabis sativa. The consignment was loaded in Edo state and meant for distribution in Bauchi state.
He further disclosed that a total of 1,556.1kg of cannabis was recovered from two suspects - Jonathan Nuhu and Mohammed Abubakar, following their arrest at the Wudil area of Kano State on Thursday, while 76kg of the same substance was seized from one Yakubu Muhammad, on Monday along Okene/Lokoja highway in a trailer coming from Port Harcourt, Rivers State to Kano.
He said, “In the same vein, operatives in Ogun State on Wednesday recovered 810 parcels of cannabis weighing 604kg from the house of one Adetunji Abiodun; while a fresh bid to smuggle into Nigeria, another consignment of Colorado, a synthetic variant of cannabis, through the Tincan Port in Apapa Lagos was also on Friday frustrated by NDLEA officers who discovered a total of 323 parcels of the illicit substance weighing 161.5kg concealed in one of the four used vehicles in a container marked MEDU 7519460 coming from Montreal, Canada, during a joint examination of the shipment.”
He stated that at least three suspects are currently in NDLEA custody over the shipment while a bribe of N20 million converted to $22,900 offered to operatives of the Agency by the importer’s agents has also been recovered and documented as evidence.
“Impressed by the volume of arrests and seizures made by officers and men of MMIA, Lagos, Bauchi, Adamawa, Ondo, Sokoto, Yobe, Edo, Imo, Kano, Kogi, Ogun, Nasarawa and Tincan Commands in the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) commended them for jobs well done while he urged them and their counterparts across the country to continue the synergy with other security agencies and stakeholders in the fight against substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking,” Babafemi said.