The narcotics agency also said that its operatives intercepted 1,343.8kg skunk, ketamine being exported to the UK, Indonesia and other countries and seized a total of 514,420 pills of opioids during raids in Gombe, Adamawa and Ogun states.
Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said that its operatives arrested a 29-year-old South African, Erasmus Jean–Pierre, with a Methamphetamine consignment at Abuja airport.
The narcotics agency also said that its operatives intercepted 1,343.8kg skunk, ketamine being exported to the UK, Indonesia and other countries and seized a total of 514,420 pills of opioids during raids in Gombe, Adamawa and Ogun states.
The Director of Media and Advocacy of NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, who made this known on Sunday in a statement, said the South African was arrested on Wednesday while attempting to export 2.6 kg of methamphetamine concealed in his luggage to the Middle East through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA).
According to the NDLEA spokesperson, the suspect was intercepted by NDLEA operatives during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 404 from Abuja to the Middle East via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
"A thorough search of his luggage led to the discovery of the whitish powdery illicit substance factory packed in different parts of the bag.
"Preliminary investigation reveals that the suspect arrived Lagos through Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on Saturday 19th August, came to Abuja on Tuesday 22nd August, and took possession of the brown bag containing the drug consignment on Wednesday 23rd August before heading to the Abuja airport for his flight out of Nigeria," Babafemi stated.
In a similar development, Babafemi said that the NDLEA officers in Gombe State while on patrol along Darazo Road on Monday recovered an abandoned Volkswagen Sharan vehicle marked GME 76 XD containing a total of 373,420 pills of opioids including tramadol and diazepam.
In the same vein, operatives in Ogun State on Wednesday raided the home of a drug dealer identified as Ifeanyi Orji in the Ibafo area of the state where 81,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg weighing 32.4kgs were recovered.
Also, in Adamawa State, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday recovered 60,000 pills of tramadol from a 25-year-old suspect identified as Ibrahim Abba, who was travelling in a commercial Toyota Starlet car from Kalaa village to Mubi.
"Equally, in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, operatives intercepted two consignments of skunk with a gross weight of 1, 242.1 kilograms.
"The first consignment of 665.1kg was seized from a truck around Area 3 on Sunday, 20th August while the second one weighing 577kgs was recovered during a stop and search operation along Lokoja- Abaji expressway the same day.
"The consignment was concealed in Jumia goods delivery packs inside a container Mercedes truck, whose driver, Yusuf Yakubu Asokomhe, and his assistant, Tunde Ogundare, were arrested.
"In Kwara State, operatives on patrol along Jebba-Minna Road on Tuesday, 22nd August, intercepted a commercial truck conveying goods from Lagos to Katsina with 37.5kg of cannabis sativa hidden among other items.
"The driver, Abdulazeez Usman and his assistant, Halidu Musa were arrested for further investigation. Similarly, In Yobe state, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday, 23rd August intercepted an ash-coloured Sharon Galaxy vehicle marked AKK 484 XA along Potiskum-Gombe Road coming from Baissa, Kurmi local government area of Taraba state.
"Three suspects in the vehicle: Ya'u Yahuza, 30; Yahaya Muhd, 29, and Tanimu Salisu, 20, were arrested with 133 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 62kg.
"Operatives in Edo on Thursday, 24th August stormed the Uzebba forest in Owan West local government area of the state, where they arrested Esazobor Ohioze, 33, with 54.3kg cannabis recovered from a hut while a total of 2.995696 hectares of cannabis farms were destroyed," Babafemi further stated.
He noted that efforts by transnational drug cartels to move a consignment of 117 grams of ketamine neatly concealed in a pair of leather male slippers being shipped to Indonesia and 2.14 kilograms of skunk clinically hidden in the walls of a local wooden drum, were equally frustrated by NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, DOGI, attached to courier firms in Lagos.