A building engineer, Egwu Phillip Inya, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), while attempting to take delivery of illicit drug consignments concealed in pressure machines imported from South Africa.
The 42-year-old Inya was arrested on Monday, December 2, at Okeyson Motor Park, Enugu when he showed up to collect three units of pressure machines inside which were hidden parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, weighing 7.40 kilograms.
The Agency’s Spokesperson, Mr. Femi Babafemi in a statement yesterday said the consignments had arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos import shed on November 29.
Following credible intelligence, officers of the MMIA Strategic Command of the Agency had monitored the shipment pass through clearing processes up to a logistics company’s warehouse outside the airport where it was to be collected by the consignee.
The importer however changed the point of collection to Enugu at the last minute. As a result, NDLEA operatives in a follow up operation in Enugu arrested Inya when he showed up to collect the consignments.
Also, no fewer than 511,000 pills of tramadol were recovered from a Siena vehicle at Hildi, Askira Uba Way in Adamawa State by NDLEA operatives on patrol along the road in the early hours of Friday, December 6.
The occupants of the vehicle had made a detour on sighting the NDLEA team and after a distance abandoned the vehicle with the consignments after noticing the operatives were on their trail.
While in Ekiti State, two suspects: Olanrewaju Alale, 48, and Babatunde Kayode Ijadahun, 55, were arrested along Ise- Emureroad in a J5 bus marked EPE 958 XJ, while transporting 108 jumbo bags of cannabis weighing 1, 323 kilograms to Owo, Ondo State from where they claimed the consignment will be moved to the North for distribution.
Another suspect, Adekunle Yusuf, 33, was nabbed by NDLEA operatives with 704 kilograms of the same psychoactive substance, concealed in white sacks on Friday, December 6, at Idere road, Igboora, Oyo State.
Meanwhile, in Lagos, a grandmother, 65-year-old Ramata Bola Adeyemo was on Friday, December 6, arrested by NDLEA operatives at 62 Odunfa Street, Lagos Island, where 20.6 litres of codeine-based syrup were recovered from her.
Also arrested in Lagos was Alhaji Lawan Manga who was picked at Ogundana Street, Ikeja on Thursday, December 5, while 4.7kg cannabis and 1.3kg tramadol were recovered from him.
