The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two alleged drug kingpins in Lagos and seized large quantities of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine bound for Europe.
NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, who confirmed the arrests in a statement on Sunday, said the suspects, 64-year-old Nwosa and 49-year-old Obiegbu, were uncovered after weeks of intelligence gathering by the Agency’s Special Operations Unit.
“While Nwosa paraded himself as a textile merchant and Obiegbu posed as a wine distributor, undercover surveillance revealed their roles as leaders of major drug syndicates,” the statement read.
The agency also announced multiple seizures across the country. In Borno, a 26-year-old man, Baba Kaka Ibrahim, was arrested on September 27 with nearly 40,000 opioid pills hidden in a Mercedes-Benz.
The same day in Yobe, 39 parcels of Colorado weighing 1.4kg were intercepted, leading to the arrest of another suspect in Maiduguri.
In Kano, two men were caught with 30,030 pills of tramadol, while in Bayelsa, three suspects were arrested at Swali Jetty with 12kg of cannabis and 50 cartridges.
A separate operation in Kaduna led to the arrest of Adedamola Olayeni, 56, with 262.6kg of skunk concealed in a Honda Pilot.
Other seizures included 85,100 pills of tramadol in Lagos, 2.1kg of Colorado in Abuja, and a follow-up operation in Gombe that netted another suspect with methamphetamine. In Edo, NDLEA operatives destroyed 24 tonnes of cannabis farms and intercepted a truckload of skunk weighing over a tonne.
The NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (Rtd), praised officers for the coordinated operations across Lagos, Borno, Yobe, Kano, Bayelsa, Edo, Kaduna and the FCT.
“Every gram of these dangerous drugs removed from circulation strengthens our fight to safeguard public health and national security,” Marwa said, urging commands nationwide to sustain the momentum in the War Against Drug Abuse.
The arrests come weeks after the NDLEA commissioned a German-built sniffer dog complex in Lagos, a facility designed to boost its interdiction capacity.
According to the agency, canine teams have already aided in the seizure of nearly 18 tonnes of illicit drugs since their deployment.