NDLEA Foils Int’l Drug Plot, Seizes “Green-Tea” Cannabis at Lagos Airport
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have smashed an audacious trafficking attempt in which 66 parcels of Loud – a high-potency strain of cannabis – were camouflaged as packets of green tea and flown into Nigeria through the cargo wing of Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja.
According to an official statement issued on Sunday by NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, the 62.20 kg consignment arrived on an Emirates Airlines flight from Thailand via the United Arab Emirates on 11 May.
Acting on “credible intelligence”, officers quietly placed the shipment on a watch-list, maintained three weeks of surveillance, and then invited customs and aviation security partners for a joint inspection on Thursday, 5 June. The wraps of “tea” were promptly unmasked as tightly compressed Loud.
“Our personnel have shown once again that patience, precision and inter-agency co-operation are indispensable in staying ahead of sophisticated smuggling networks,” NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Brig-Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) said, praising the team for the high-impact catch.
The Lagos Command struck again on Monday, 2 June, intercepting 1,665 kg of skunk along the Lekki–Ajah Expressway. Suspects Gidado Abdulrasaq Ayinde and Obanla Oluwafemi were arrested on the spot.
Up-country, Kaduna operatives patrolling the Abuja–Kaduna Expressway on Tuesday, 3 June halted Goodluck Nnaemeka (29) with 612 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup and 2,970 flunitrazepam tablets, commonly abused as a “date-rape” sedative.
That same day, a long-sought dealer, Kabiru Musa (alias “KB”, 52), was captured in Kurmin Mashi after officers earlier recovered 25.7 kg of skunk from his hide-out.
Edo State agents carried out twin operations: nine kilogrammes of Loud were found stashed in the spare-tyre well of an Audi station wagon on the Auchi Road, leading to the arrest of Atari Israel (45); elsewhere in Benin City, female couriers Favour Joy and Joy Igwe were picked up at Ikpoba Hill with a cocktail of illicit substances – 106.57 kg skunk, 1 kg Loud, 800 g Colorado (another premium cannabis strain) and 302 g crystal methamphetamine.
Beyond raids and roadblocks, the Agency’s War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign “kept its classroom promise” last week, delivering anti-drug lectures at schools in Katsina, Ebonyi, Cross River, Lagos and Anambra.
Zone 13 officers also paid an advocacy call on the Amayanabo of Nembe Kingdom, Dr Edmund Dakoru, Mingi XII, in Bayelsa State, enlisting traditional rulers in the fight against narcotics.
Gen Marwa applauded commands nationwide for “striking a fair balance between supply-reduction and demand-reduction”, urging officers to sustain momentum as traffickers devise ever more ingenious concealment tricks.
The arrested suspects will be charged once investigations are concluded, the statement added.
