A 62-YEAR-OLD Lagos-based businessman, Nwabueze Nicholas Izueke, has been arrested at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) while heading to China with 95 jumbo-sized wraps of cocaine weighing 1.589 kilograms buried in his stomach.
Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, Femi Babafemi, broke the news in a statement yesterday.
Babafemi said Nwabueze was arrested last Saturday when passengers going to China via Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET940 were being cleared.
According to the statement, when taken for a scan, he tested positive for ingesting illicit drug and was promptly placed under excretion observation.
Babafemi said the suspect, who claimed he’s into clothing and auto spare parts business in Lagos, expelled a total of 95 pellets of the class A drug in seven excretions.
But, he decided to engage in illicit drug trafficking to raise funds to complete his country home in his village, Iwollo, Enugu State.
The NDLEA spokesman said while a total of 627.7 kilograms of skunk, a strain of cannabis, were recovered from a makeshift warehouse in Fums Plaza in Kubwa, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), attempt by Ebube Okeke, Evans Ugwu, Mohammed Eze Arinze and Friday Michael to smuggle consignments of methamphetamine concealed in Mp3 speakers from Enugu to Abuja and Kaduna was last Friday foiled by their operatives in Abuja who intercepted the consignments in a bus.
Babafemi said a follow up in Zuba, FCT led to the arrest of Ebube Okeke, who is the owner of one of the parcels containing 173grams of meth, while the trio of Evans Ugwu, Mohammed Eze Arinze and Friday Michael were nabbed on February 7 in Kaduna when they showed up to collect the second consignment weighing 28grams of meth.
Babafemi added: “In a similar development, NDLEA operatives at Dan-anacha patrol point, Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State on February 6 intercepted a suspect Yusuf Abubakar, 32, conveying packs of Hollandia Yogurt from Lagos heading to Mubi, Adamawa State.
“Acting on intelligence, the NDLEA officers searched the yogurt packs, some of which were used to conceal wraps of white powdery substance that tested positive to methamphetamine weighing 1.8 kilograms.
“In Oyo State, NDLEA officers on Thursday, February 5 arrested a Beninoise Shuaibu Abdulrahman, 29, at Ibudo-Igboho village, Sooro Kishi, where they recovered 149.6kg Skunk concealed in rice shafts.’’
In Ibadan, a suspect, Adeniyi Adeola (a.k.a Prince), was nabbed at Foko, Agbeni market on February 4. Recovered from his truck marked BDJ 767 YC were 10,820 ampoules of pentazocine injection; and 117,820 capsules of tramadol.
Also in Ibadan, a drug kingpin Jimoh Nurudeen, 40, who owns a facility where he produces Colorado, a synthetic cannabis, was last February arrested at Badeku, with his accomplice Ogundipe Yusuf, 27. Eight litres of precursor chemical; 14 grams of skunk and other paraphernalia of Colos production, as well as monetary exhibit of ₦7,408,400 and two vehicles – a Mercedes Benz SUV marked ABC 832 AZ and a Toyota Highlander with registration number RBC 243 BS – were recovered from them.
In Kwara State, Babafemi continued, their operatives last Saturday seized a tanker moving from Lagos to Maiduguri, Borno State. A search of the truck led to the recovery of 395,400 capsules of tramadol concealed in parts of the petrol laden truck, while the driver was taken into custody.
While a couple – Izuchukwu Azubuike, 37, and Ifunaya Mmadueke, 32 – was arrested at Umuaka, Njaba, Imo State with 203kg skunk, last Saturday operatives in Ondo State recovered 420kg skunk in a bush at Ikun-Akoko.
No fewer than 31 wraps of cocaine hidden in a handbag were seized by operatives of the Marine Command of NDLEA from a suspect, Eze Nodebechi Austin, on his arrival from Cote D’Ivoire in a passenger’s boat at Yekeme, Badagry, Lagos State last Friday.
Also, Babafemi said a suspect Adekunle Oluwatosin Olajide was on Wednesday, last week arrested at Lagos Island by operatives who recovered 3.6 kilograms of Canadian Loud and Colorado from him.
He said in Enugu, a drug dealer Emeka Okeke, 37, was nabbed in his hideout at Akuruka Street, Asata, Ezeagu where various quantities of skunk, meth, cocaine and molly as well as N457,700 were seized from him.
Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), who praised the operatives’ efforts, urged them and their colleagues to maintain the tempo of their commitment to eradicating drugs.
Source; The Nation News