NDLEA crushes drug rings: Dispatch rider, couple, syndicates fall in Nationwide raids

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intensified its sweeping war against narcotics, recording a string of high-profile arrests and seizures across the country in one of its most coordinated crackdowns yet.

This is contained in a statement issued by NDLEA’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi on Sunday.

In Abuja, operatives on a stop-and-search mission at the Utako area on Thursday, 11th September, arrested 29-year-old dispatch rider, Godsplan Vincent, caught while attempting to deliver 50.7 grams of cocaine and 66 grams of Loud to clients.

In Oyo State, three women, Faidat Azeez, 25; Alanu Fatimoh, 40; and Mojeed Taiwo, 25, were apprehended in Lagbondoko and Akitan, Oyo town, after 17kg of skunk was recovered from them.

Kano was another hotspot. At Gadar Tamburawa along the Zaria–Kano road, NDLEA officers seized 100,000 pills of tramadol from Musa Shuaibu, 38, while 196 litres of Akuskura, a dangerous new psychoactive drink, were confiscated from Abubakar Adamu, 35.

Another suspect, Basiru Umar, 18, was arrested with 34.1kg skunk, 493 tubes of rubber solution and 25 litres of “suck and die”, a deadly chemical mix.

In Anambra, a husband-and-wife team, Nzube and Ebele Onyedika, aged 41 and 42, were arrested at Obosi after NDLEA recovered 13.9kg methamphetamine and 5.3kg skunk from their residence. Similarly, Nnamchi Tochukwu, 36, was found with quantities of meth, tramadol, swinol, heroin, and skunk.

Yobe operatives raided Gadan Talakawa, Potiskum, arresting Mohammed Auwal with 22.1kg cannabis.

In Ogun State, three young traffickers, Kunyadi Kunle Ogbungbun, 24; Olalekan Adewale, 20; and Sanya Joshua, 22, were caught transporting 394kg skunk across the border at Imeko using motorcycles, later seized by the joint NDLEA-police-vigilante team.

The most dramatic bust came in Edo State, where NDLEA officers stormed Ugbogyi forest, Ovia South-West, destroying a 6.78-hectare cannabis farm, eliminating 16,966kg of skunk, and seizing an additional 1,176kg of processed cannabis.

Four suspects, Ebenezer Ewang, Oshore John, Emmanuel Monday, and David Sunday, were arrested at the site.

Meanwhile, NDLEA Commands continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy, holding sensitisation lectures in motor parks, schools, mosques, palaces, and workplaces across Enugu, Oyo, Katsina, Niger, and Ogun States.

Commending the successes, NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), praised officers nationwide and urged them to sustain the “balanced approach” to tackling drug abuse and trafficking.