The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intensified its offensive against drug trafficking networks with the interception of 1.63 million tramadol pills concealed in two long trailers bound for Kano, while arresting several suspected traffickers in coordinated operations across Lagos, Rivers, Edo and Kogi states.
The agency said the latest seizures are part of ongoing efforts to dismantle a transnational drug syndicate smuggling tramadol into Nigeria through the Togo-Benin Republic corridor.
NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed the development in a statement issued on Sunday.
According to him, the intelligence-driven operation followed the interception of 558,900 tramadol pills hidden in a truck along the same smuggling route barely a week earlier.
Babafemi said operatives intercepted the first trailer on July 2 along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway after tracking the vehicle from the border. A search of the truck uncovered 853,000 pills of Tramadol 250mg concealed inside a specially fabricated compartment beneath the cargo floor.
The agency arrested the truck’s 22-year-old driver, Jabir Kabiru.
He added that a second trailer travelling on the same route was intercepted on July 4, with officers recovering another 777,000 pills of Tramadol 250mg hidden in a similar compartment. The driver, 22-year-old Muhammed Nuhu, was also taken into custody.
Investigations, Babafemi said, revealed that the three intercepted consignments recovered on June 21, July 2 and July 4 belonged to the same transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating between Togo, the Benin Republic and Nigeria.
In a separate operation at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, NDLEA officers intercepted two consignments containing 4.70 kilograms of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, shipped from Canada aboard British Airways and Ethiopian Airlines flights.
The consignments, concealed inside cartons labelled “Odugwu”, led to the arrest of cargo agents Ali Rotimi Samson and Orimolade Oluwagbenga, while another suspect, Edeh Onyeamachi Stanislus, was apprehended when he arrived at a logistics company to collect the packages.
Further investigations resulted in the arrest of 44-year-old businesswoman Chioma Nneka Mokeme, identified by the agency as the owner of the consignments. She was arrested in collaboration with the Nigeria Police Area C Command in Surulere, Lagos.
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According to the NDLEA, Mokeme, who claimed to be a printer, admitted she was introduced to the illicit trade by a friend based in Canada.
In Rivers State, operatives arrested an 80-year-old suspected drug dealer, Chika Ugwoji, in Ahoada after recovering 800 grams of skunk from him.
Similarly, in Edo State, a couple identified as Christian Chukwuka, 32, and Nwanneka Christian, 33, were arrested during a raid on their warehouse along Sapele Road in Benin City.
The operation led to the seizure of 22 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5 kilograms and compressed blocks of Canadian Loud with a total weight of 192.67 kilograms.
The agency also arrested a 38-year-old Chadian national, Hajara Abdullahi, alongside her Nigerian associate, Abdulkarim Jidda, 44, in Lagos after investigations linked them to the seizure of 50,000 pills of Tramadol 225mg intercepted in Kogi State.
Babafemi said the suspects were traced to the Apapa area of Lagos and taken into custody as investigations continue.
The NDLEA reaffirmed its commitment to disrupting drug trafficking networks across the country through intelligence-led operations and strengthened collaboration with other security agencies.
