The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 33-year-old alleged supplier of illicit drugs to bandits operating in Niger State, three weeks after he escaped arrest during a raid on his home, the agency has said.
The agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, said in a statement on Sunday that the suspect, Mohammed Sani, also known as Gamboli, was arrested on 11 December at his hideout in Kuta, Shiroro Local Government Area, following what he described as “processed intelligence” by NDLEA operatives.
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According to the NDLEA, Mr Sani had earlier fled when operatives raided his residence in Anguwan Makera, Kuta, on 20 November, where they recovered “471.8 kilograms of skunk, a strain of cannabis.”
The agency said intelligence reports indicated that the suspect is “a major supplier of illicit drugs to bandits operating in Shiroro local government area.”
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Mr Babafemi said the manhunt for the suspect eventually paid off when NDLEA officers “traced and arrested him at one of his drug joints in Anguwan Fadama, Kuta.”
The NDLEA also reported a series of other drug busts across the country within the same period.
In Abia State, operatives raided what the agency described as “a clandestine codeine syrup-manufacturing factory” at Amapu Igbengwo village in Osisioma Local Government Area, where “9,015 bottles of codeine syrup weighing 1,152.2kg” were recovered.
In Enugu State, two suspects were arrested on 11 December with a combined 101.8kg of skunk, while in Oyo State, a raid on a drug joint known as “Beere the California” led to the seizure of skunk, synthetic cannabis and methamphetamine.
The alleged owner of the joint, identified as Idowu the killer, is currently at large, the agency said.
Further arrests were recorded in Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Edo and Gombe states.
At the Seme border area in Lagos, two suspects were arrested with “50,000 pills of tramadol 250mg,” while operatives in Ondo State arrested a mother and her son and recovered “1,187 kilograms of skunk and its seeds.”
At the Apapa seaport in Lagos, NDLEA officers on 13 December intercepted “170,000 bottles of codeine syrup weighing 23,579kg” during a joint container examination with the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies.
The agency also said it intercepted “no fewer than 907 pills of tramadol, tapentadol, cocodamol, amitriptyline and bromazepam” concealed in shipments bound for the United States, Canada and Sweden.
Mr Babafemi added that NDLEA commands across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaigns in schools, worship centres and communities during the week under review.
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While commending officers involved in the operations, the NDLEA Chairman, Mohamed Marwa, urged them to sustain the agency’s strategy.
He “enjoined them and their colleagues across the country to continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the drug control efforts of the Agency,” the statement said.
