NDLEA Intercepts Illicit Substances Concealed In Prayer Beads, Others
By Anne Osemekeh, Abuja
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA have thwarted desperate attempts by some drug trafficking organisations to move illicit consignments such as Cocaine, Tramadol, Loud, Molly and others.
NDLEA’s Head of Media and Advocacy, Mr. Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, stated that these Illicit substances were concealed in such items as prayer beads, shoe soles, board game packs and clothing items for export through logistics firms and the Lagos airport.
One of the arrested suspects behind some of the aborted missions at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja Lagos, is a 43-year-old businesswoman, Jakpor Egware May, who was nabbed at the Gate ‘C’ departure hall of the Lagos airport while attempting to board an Air France flight to Italy on Saturday 8th March 2025.
When she was searched, 190 parcels of tramadol 225mg and another parcel of skunk, a strain of cannabis, were recovered from her luggage. In her statement, she claimed that she bought the drugs herself, with the intention to resell them in Italy.
At the export shed of the Lagos airport on Tuesday 11th March, operatives of the
anti-narcotics agency arrested a 60-year-old suspect, Yahaya Fatai Ayinla, while attempting to ship a cargo containing cloths used to conceal 400grams of skunk going to New York, United States of America.
At some logistics companies in Lagos, efforts by drug traffickers to export over two kilograms of Loud, Molly, Tramadol 365mg, 225mg hidden in Vitamin C bottles and female cloths to the US were frustrated by NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI). Other shipments of 230grams of cocaine concealed in prayer beads, soles of locally made shoes and packs of board games heading to Saudi Arabia, Poland and UAE were equally intercepted between Monday 10th and Wednesday 12th March.
Raid operations in Kachia, Kaduna state on Thursday 13th March led to the arrest of Idris Hamza, 21, with 4,900 pills of tramadol 225mg seized from him, just as a similar exercise in Hayin Banki area of Kaduna North LGA, on Friday 14th March resulted in the arrest of 25-year-old Aminu Magaji from whom 2,900 tablets of tramadol 225mg were recovered.
While a total of 40, 200 tablets of tramadol 225mg were recovered from the duo of Olowoko Faruk and Akeem Ridwan along Ilorin – Jebba expressway, Bode Saadu, Kwara state on Friday 14th March, NDLEA operatives equally seized 21,700 capsules of same opioid from a suspect Salisu Usman along Eiyenkorin expressway, Ilorin on Thursday 13th March.
Similarly, a 58-year-old suspect, Ade Esan (aka Pastor) was on Tuesday 11th March arrested along Gwagwalada expressway, FCT Abuja with 27,800 pills of tramadol 225mg, while another suspect Usman Mohammed, 26, was nabbed same day with various quantities of skunk and cocaine at Wuse zone 3 area of Abuja.
In Abia state, NDLEA operatives on Saturday 15th March raided the Ntigha community, Isiala-Ngwa North LGA, where a 34-year-old suspect Chinaza Nwogu (aka Young Money) was arrested with 274grams of heroin, 141grams of methamphetamine, 2.931kg of cannabis sativa, 4g of cocaine and Seven Hundred and Fifty Three Thousand, Fifteen Naira (N753,015.00) monetary exhibit.
