Indian businessman, three Nigerians nabbed in Lagos after NDLEA smashes N3.9bn drug cartel

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has dismantled a sprawling drug trafficking network, arresting an Indian businessman and three Nigerian collaborators after intercepting a staggering 2,248,000 pills of tramadol worth N3.99 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

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

According to Babafemi, the mastermind, identified as Gupta Ravi Kumar, was caught in a follow-up operation on Friday, 12th September, as he attempted to take delivery of the illicit cargo.

His accomplices, Ogunlana Noah Olanrewaju, Olushola Idrees Kayode, and Bakare Korede Muheeb, were earlier arrested after NDLEA operatives, who had placed the consignment under surveillance, swooped on a clearing agent and two truck drivers moving the shipment out of the airport on Thursday, 11th September.

The shipment, imported from Delhi, India, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight, had been cleverly disguised as multi-vitamins and packed in 114 cartons. It arrived Nigeria on Monday, 8th September.

The crackdown did not stop at Lagos airport. At the departure terminal on 7th September, NDLEA officers nabbed Onyeganochi Stanley Ifeanyi, a first-time traveller to Doha on Qatar Airways, with 900g of skunk concealed in crayfish.

His confession led to the immediate arrest of Ohadiegwu Anthony Uchenna, who had handed him the bag. A raid on Uchenna’s hotel room in Ajao Estate uncovered an additional 200g of cannabis.

In a separate joint operation at Tincan Port, Lagos, NDLEA officers uncovered 161 parcels of Canadian Loud (81.7kg) and 1.2kg of hashish oil hidden in a 40ft container of spare parts and used vehicles from Montreal, Canada. Two suspects-John Ochigbo (53) and Okeke Kingsley (26), were arrested. Another 65kg Loud consignment was tracked from the port and intercepted on Third Mainland Bridge in a Toyota Sienna, with the driver Abubakar Ibrahim (42) arrested.

The agency also intercepted methamphetamine concealed in a picture frame bound for Gabon and 1.1kg of Loud hidden in video decoders destined for the UAE at two Lagos courier firms.

Meanwhile, in Ikorodu, NDLEA agents stormed a clandestine “skuchies” factory producing cannabis-laced blackcurrant drinks. They recovered 6,029 bottles of the substance and 4,232kg of cannabis, arresting factory manager Joy Awosika. In Mushin, Akeem Oriola was also caught with 26kg of skunk.

NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd.), hailed the operations as a major blow against transnational drug cartels, warning traffickers that Nigeria would remain a hostile terrain for their trade.