The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested a drug kingpin identified as Alhaji Sulaimon Jimoh after several attempts by the agency to arrest him.

This was made known through a statement on Tuesday by the agency’s director of media and advocacy, Femi Babfemi who stated that the agency has been tracking the 57-year-old man nicknamed Temo for the past two years.

He stated that the agency intercepted large consignments of illicit drugs worth billions of naira owned by the drug pin.

The statement reads, “In the last two years, the NDLEA had intercepted large consignments of illicit drugs worth billions of naira owned by Temo but he has remained largely evasive while a few encounters with him and his armed gangs in his Mushin enclave had resulted in gunfight.

“Some of the recent seizures of his shipments include: a 14, 524.8 kilograms of Ghana Loud, a strong strain of cannabis sativa, smuggled into Lagos from Ghana in two trucks and a J5 bus intercepted at Ojuelegba area of Lagos in the early hours of Sunday 28th January 2024; two truck-loads of the same substance weighing 8,852kg intercepted at Eleko beach, Lekki Lagos on 4th May 2023 and 252kg of Loud seized from his enclave in Mushin on Wednesday 26th July 2023. Indeed, in the last two encounters, his men engaged NDLEA operatives in gunfight.”

Babafemi noted that arrest of the drug kingpin was achieveable only through the agency’s modern tools and intelligence, which led to his arrest on Monday 22nd July 2024 in Igbarere street, Mushin.

Also reacting to the arrest of Temo, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) commended the officers and men of the Lagos State Command, Special Monitoring Task Force and other formations tasked with the assignment of getting Temo arrested for their resilience, vigilance, and professionalism.

He said, “I am particularly delighted because the arrest was eventually effected in his enclave without any casualty despite the attack on our men. This is therefore a clear message to others still involved in this criminal trade of illicit drugs that if they dont opt out now, well get them because were just steps away from their doorsteps and more importantly they can only run, they cant hide forever.”