The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has dismantled two major cross-border drug trafficking syndicates and arrested six leaders from Adamawa, Anambra, Lagos, and Cameroon.
This operation comes after months of surveillance on the groups, who are suspected of supplying drugs to terrorist groups in Nigeria and Cameroon.
In a statement released on Sunday, NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi explained, “After months of intelligence gathering and painstaking surveillance, operatives of the NDLEA have dismantled two major cross-border drug trafficking syndicates, with cocaine and opioids worth billions of naira recovered. Six leaders of the cartels were arrested in different parts of the country.”
According to Babafemi, these syndicates included members based in Mubi (Adamawa State), Onitsha (Anambra State), and Lagos, as well as individuals from Cameroon. The arrested leaders included Ibrahim Bawuro, Najib Ibrahim, Ibrahim Umar, Nelson Anayo, Ezeh Martin, and Adejumo Ishola. Investigations showed they transported psychoactive drugs, particularly tramadol, sourced from Onitsha to the northern states and into Cameroon.
“The duo of Ibrahim Bawuro and Ibrahim Najib would transport the drugs from Onitsha to Yola and then other parts of the North and Cameroon in specially constructed hidden compartments in vehicles, usually traveling at night,” Babafemi revealed.
NDLEA operatives captured Bawuro and Najib on October 8, 2024, in Taraba after tracking them from Onitsha with a large shipment of 276,500 tramadol pills, which they abandoned on the Jalingo-Yola highway while attempting to evade arrest.
Further investigations led NDLEA agents to Delta and Anambra, where they arrested Ezeh Amaechi Martin and Nelson Udechukwu Anayo, both linked to the syndicate. Babafemi also reported that another syndicate leader, Adejumo Ishola, was detained on November 5 at the Seme border in Lagos while returning from Ghana with 3.3 kg of cocaine and 600 grams of synthetic cannabis.
In Lagos, on November 6, NDLEA agents at the Apapa seaport discovered 31,750,000 pills of Voltron, an opioid, hidden in a container from India that was falsely labeled as diclofenac sodium tablets. “The discovery was made during a joint examination of the container with officers from Customs and other security agencies,” Babafemi noted.
Additional busts at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos included the seizure of a 700-gram shipment of Loud, a potent cannabis strain. Software engineer Olu Marshal, who arrived to collect the package, was arrested, and a search of his home in Lekki uncovered drug paraphernalia.
Another attempt to smuggle drugs to the UK was thwarted at Lagos Airport on November 8. The NDLEA intercepted 32.5 kg of codeine syrup and 5.7 kg of cannabis hidden in a shipment of tiger nuts bound for London.
Babafemi also added that the NDLEA would continue to strengthen its operations, stating, “These arrests and interceptions are part of our commitment to cutting off the supply chain for illicit drugs and protecting our communities from the dangers posed by these harmful substances.”
