Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have intercepted 70 parcels of cocaine hidden inside cocoa butter body cream containers at the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
The agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, said in a statement on Sunday that the drug, weighing 3.60 kilograms, was found on October 14 during checks on cargo labeled as personal effects bound for London on an Air Peace flight.
A cargo agent, Lawal Mustapha Olakunle, who presented the shipment for airfreight, was immediately arrested. Follow-up investigations that lasted two weeks led to the arrest of two other key suspects, including a female healthcare worker, Ogunmuyide Taiwo Deborah, and a travel agency boss, Mutiu Adebayo Adebiyi, who was picked up at his office on Ladoke Akintola Street, Ikeja GRA.
Babafemi said, “The cocaine parcels were factory-sealed into the walls of cocoa butter body cream containers and neatly packed as personal items heading to the UK.”
In another operation, NDLEA officers at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, stopped a 35-year-old man from Lesotho, Lemena Mark, from exporting 103.59 grams of methamphetamine hidden inside a Diabeta herbs coffee tea pack to the Philippines.
Also, on October 21, operatives in Kwara State arrested Umar Abubakar at Bode Saadu, Moro Local Government Area, with 21,950 capsules of tramadol concealed inside a 100-litre water heater.
The statement added that NDLEA officers raided Proxy Night Club on Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, around 3 a.m. on Sunday, October 26, after receiving intelligence about a drug party. Over 100 people, including the club owner, Mike Eze Nwalie Nwogu, popularly known as Pretty Mike, were arrested. Cartons of Loud, laughing gas, and other illicit substances were found at the scene.
Babafemi explained that undercover operatives had attended the party before it was disrupted. “We acted based on credible intelligence and followed standard procedures,” he said.
In other parts of the country, NDLEA operatives arrested two men, Auwal Musa and Salihu Bala, at Dan-Anacha checkpoint, Taraba State, with 450,000 pills of tramadol and Exol-5 while transporting the drugs in a truck filled with building materials.
Along the Okene–Lokoja highway, Kogi State, 162.2 kilograms of skunk were seized from a truck, while in Nasarawa, 128 kilograms of the same substance were recovered from a suspect, Abubakar Muhammad.
In Lagos, a mother of two, Oyonumoh Glory Effiong, described as a major distributor of Canadian and California Loud in Lekki, Ajah, Ikoyi, Victoria Island, and VGC, was arrested on October 17. Officers found 500 grams of the drugs in her home.
At Solomade Estate in Ikorodu, NDLEA raided the house of Ogunyabo Adenigbigbe and recovered 275 litres of skuchies, a drink mixed with cannabis and opioids.
A 75-year-old man, Echendu Onuoka, was arrested in Abia State with 4.7 kilograms of skunk, while a 60-year-old woman, Aukana John, was caught with 225 grams of the same drug in the same area.
Two suspects, Bashir Mohammad and Samini Ahmed Tijjani, were arrested in Kaduna with 234.5 kilograms of cannabis, while another pair, Isah Usman and Salvation Okoler, were nabbed on the Abuja–Kaduna highway with 8,600 tramadol and rohypnol pills.
At the Seme border, Jacob Ojugbele was caught with 55 kilograms of skunk, and another suspect, Amusa Oluwabukola, was found with 121.3 litres of skuchies.
In Zamfara, operatives intercepted a man, Abubakar Ibrahim, with an AK-47 rifle and 1,746 rounds of ammunition on Gummi–Anka Road while transporting the weapons from Sokoto to Bagega Forest. The suspect and the weapons were handed over to the appropriate security agency.
The NDLEA Chairman, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), praised the officers for their dedication and urged them to maintain their momentum.
He said, “The agency will continue to balance enforcement with prevention and rehabilitation to tackle the drug challenge in the country.”
