THISDAY

NDLEA Intercepts 12,385kg of Loud Cannabis on Lagos Waterways

- Michael Olugbode inAbujaand Wale Igbintade inLagos

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcemen­t Agency (NDLEA) at the weekend intercepte­d 12,385 kilogramme­s of loud cannabis from getting into Lagos.

According to a statement issued by the spokesman of NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, loud cannabis is a strong specie of the illicit weed imported from a neighbouri­ng country (which name was not revealed) and smuggled into Lagos through the waterways.

Babafemi said the operatives

acted on credible intelligen­ce that 12,385 pellets of loud cannabis were brought in from the particular West African country through the ocean and ferried with boats to the Eko Atlantic beach, Victoria Island in Lagos from where they would be distribute­d to drug hotspots such as Island, Peti Alagba and others areas across Lagos and other states.

He said on getting the intel, over 50 narcotic officers stormed the beach on November 27, 2021, and recovered the consignmen­ts along with two long trucks, a Toyota Sienna van, as well as arrested three suspects.

The agency spokesman said those arrested are Abdulkadri Zakari, 24; Ka'abu Sausu, 45, and Lawrence Adie, 27.

In another clampdown, a 70-year-old woman, Mrs. Beatrice Aigbedion, was among the suspects arrested in some parts of Edo State in connection with the seizure of over 5,000 kilogramme­s of assorted illicit drugs across the state.

Babafemi said after days of surveillan­ce, NDLEA operatives on November 24 stormed a

warehouse at Uhiere, Ovia North East Local Government Area of the state, where they recovered a total of 4,261.5 kilogramme­s of cannabis sativa, while a suspect, Ikong Stanley, was arrested.

He said on the previous day, 1,240 kilogramme­s was equally seized at a warehouse in Uzebba, Owan West LGA of the state.

Babafemi said: “At the point of her arrest in Irrua last Wednesday,

Aigbedion was caught with different quantities of codeine cough syrup, Swinol and Rohypnol, while another dealer, Joseph Onyemaechi, 50, was also nabbed at Upper Sakponba area in Benin-city last Friday with different types of psychotrop­ic substances weighing 2.055 kilogramme­s.”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Nigeria