NDLEA Nabs Suspects With Pills of Pharmaceutical Opioids

By Adedapo Adesanya

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Kaduna and Adamawa States have seized over half a million pills of pharmaceutical opioids from suspects in raid operations.

In Kaduna alone, 294,400 pills of Tramadol and Diazepam were seized from Mr Shaban Nasir, Mr Aminu Usman and Mr Shamsudeen Hussaini, along Abuja-Kaduna express road as well as Mr Sa’idu Yahaya and Mr Umar Abubakar, during a follow-up operation in Kano, all on Friday, July 15.

It was also announced that over 227,000 different grades of Tramadol tablets were seized during the raid of a patent medicine store at Sabon Layi, close to Mubi main market, Mubi North LGA, Adamawa State on Sunday 3rd July.

Recovered from the store where a suspect, Mr Nasiru Abubakar, 27, was arrested include Tramadol 250mg (aka Boko Haram); Royal Tramadol 225mg (aka Vectra); Tramaking Tramadol 225mg (aka Jan Dara); Tramadol 200mg (aka Dogari); and Tramadol 100mg(aka Green), among others.

Another suspect, Mr Idris Adamu, 25, was also arrested in a shoe shop in the same Sabon Layi where over 5,000 tablets of Tramadol 225mg were recovered from him.

In Nasarawa state, NDLEA operatives have intercepted over 91 jumbo bags of cannabis, weighing 1,029.5kg concealed in a truck-mounted natural gas tank by Doma road, around 500 Housing Estate, Lafia. A 52-year-old suspect, Mr Ernest Ojieh, was arrested in connection with the seizure on Saturday, July 9.

This was barely four days after operatives at Agwan Doka, Lafia, seized 38 big bags of the same substance with a total weight of 367kg. Two suspects identified as Mr Abdullahi Iliyasu, 30, and Mr Bashir Mohammed, 29 were arrested over the seizure.

Also, the agency arrested a 27-year-old suspect identified as Mrs Opoola Mujidat for planting drugs concealed in fetish bowls, containing scary native black soap and sponge on two Oman-bound male passengers at the departure hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.

The passengers, Mr Raji Babatunde Kazeem and Mr Akinbobola Omoniyi were travelling together to Oman, the Middle East on an Ethiopian Airlines flight on Monday, July 11 when they were intercepted by NDLEA operatives at the airport.

A search of their luggage revealed wraps of cannabis Sativa hidden in bowls of native black soap and sponge packed into a bag containing food items, which Mr Kazeem was carrying.

Both men immediately alerted the anti-narcotic officers that Mujidat, who was still within the vicinity, gave the bag containing the illicit substance to them at the airport.

She was promptly arrested and she accepted responsibility and stated that she brought the luggage for the two passengers to give to her husband in Oman.

Mujidat, who hails from Oyo East LGA in Oyo State, confessed during a preliminary interview that the bag containing the food items was packed by her with different items, including the black soap used to conceal the illicit substance.