Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a notorious drug kingpin Okechukwu Izugha (a.k.a Okey Omeogo).
Disclosing this on Sunday, the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said Izugha was arrested on Wednesday, 9th July at his wife’s shop in Ijesha market, after 12 months of hiding.
Izugha came under NDLEA radar on 7th August 2024 after 9 kilogrammes of cocaine was recovered from a suspect, Obiora Joseph Agudosi, at a motor park in Orile, Lagos while going to deliver the consignment in the southeast.
Izugha was identified as the owner of the seized drug.
In the course of investigations into the kingpin and his network, his wife, Maureen Izugha, was arrested with 500grams of cocaine at her beverages store in Ijesha market on 21st January 2025. She was thereafter arraigned in court, convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment.
Unknown to him that NDLEA was still on his trail, the wanted kingpin came out of his hiding and was promptly arrested last Wednesday.
Similarly, operatives of the anti-narcotics agency intercepted parcels of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis concealed in microwaves imported from Thailand and wraps of cocaine built into ladies’ lipsticks going to Guinea at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja Lagos.
The Loud consignment was part of a consolidated cargo that came in two tranches on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Bangkok, Thailand through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Based on credible intelligence, the cargo was subjected to thorough search during which 23 parcels of loud weighing 11.3kg concealed in new microwaves were recovered on Monday 7th July 2025. A suspect, Ezenwegbu Chike, has been arrested in connection with the seizure.
Operatives at the export shed of the Lagos airport also intercepted a consignment of cocaine built into ladies’ lipsticks as part of a cargo containing hair attachments, face powder, and other items heading to Malabo, Guinea.
No less than 400grams of cocaine and phenacetine, a cutting agent, were recovered from the lipsticks when dismantled, while a businessman at the Trade Fair Complex, Ojo area of Lagos, Ezeikwelume Prince Afam, was arrested on Friday 11th July in connection with the seizure.
This is barely a week after a total of 420grams of cocaine factory fitted in 84 pieces of female lipsticks heading to the UK were seized at a courier company in Lagos.
In Edo state, over 28,000 kilograms of skunk, a local strain of cannabis, were destroyed on three farms measuring over 11 hectares at Ewere Uzebba forest in Owan West local government area on Tuesday 8th July, while 82 kilogrammes of already processed cannabis was recovered from the location.
The NDLEA operatives who went for the operation however came under gun attack from armed members of the cartel on their way out of the forest. They were able to repel the attack and came out unhurt while one of their operational vehicles was riddled with bullets.
In Borno state, operatives on Saturday 12th July arrested one Godwin Chimaobi Nwaobi, 42, with 18,759 ampoules of pentazocine, pills of tramadol and rohypnol at Njimtilo, Maiduguri, coming on the heels of the seizure of 10,000 pills of tramadol from another suspect Abdulrahman Bello Ahmadu, 34, on Wednesday 9th July, while their counterparts in Gombe state recovered a total of 116,226 pills of tramadol and D-5 from five suspects: Hafiz Bello, 22; Isah Suleman, 48; Kabiru Muhammed, 30; Abdullahi Adamu, 30; and Abel Murna, 25, at Gombe main market and along Gombe-Kano road on Tuesday 8th and Saturday 12th July.
The War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, social advocacy activities by NDLEA Commands equally continued across the country in the past week. Some of them include: WADA sensitization lecture delivered to students and staff of Word of Promise High School, Calabar, Cross River; Government Girls Arabic Senior Secondary School, Indabo Wudil, Kano; Community Secondary School, Umundu, Enugu; Okemagba Senior High School, Epe, Lagos; Bishop Gideon Otubelu Memorial College, Ukpo, Anambra; and traditional rulers in Bende area of Abia state, among others.
Commending the officers and men of MMIA, SOU, Edo, Lagos and other various commands where arrests and seizures were made in the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) equally praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for pursuing a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
