Paul Mbadugha, a Vietnam-bound businessman, has been arrested by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency operatives at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport for attempting to smuggle 88 wraps of cocaine.
Mbadugha tested positive for cocaine consumption, which led to his capture.
In a statement released on Sunday, spokesperson Femi Babafemi verified that Mbadugha had eliminated a total of 1.710 kilograms, or 88 wraps, of cocaine.
Babafemi said, “The 54-year-old suspect was intercepted at the boarding gate of Abuja Airport on Monday, 12th August 2024, during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam, via Doha. After four days under excretion observation, Mbadugha excreted a total of 88 wraps of the illicit drug with a gross weight of 1.710 kilograms.”
Babafemi added that the suspect said he was given the drugs to swallow for a payment of $2,000 by a businessman in Lagos.
He said, “In his statement, he claimed he is a Lagos-based businessman and was given the cocaine pellets to swallow by a friend in the Isolo area of Lagos for onward delivery in Vietnam for a fee of $2,000.”
Babafemi also reported that a shipment of “Loud,” weighing 800 grams and concealed in noodles, was intercepted at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
He said, “Similarly, NDLEA officers at the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos, intercepted a shipment of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 800 grams concealed in noodles, destined for Congo.
“A follow-up operation at Alaba International Market in the Ojo area of Lagos led to the arrest of the sender of the consignment, Nnamani Sunday Sunny, who deals in GSM handsets.”
At Lagos Airport, Babafemi said a large consignment of Loud imported from Canada was recovered.
He said that during a joint security agency inspection at the arrival hall, anti-narcotic officers detained a suspect, Desalu Taophic Temitope, who had arrived on an Air France flight carrying six boxes.
“A total of 65.80 kilograms of the psychoactive substance were recovered from four of the six suitcases. In his statement, Desalu said he and an accomplice, currently at large, were promised $10,000 upon successful delivery of the shipment in Lagos.”
In Rivers State, Babafemi said no less than 892,400 bottles of codeine-based syrup, worth N6,246,800,000.00 in street value, were recovered from five containers by NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, during a joint examination of the containers with the Nigeria Customs and other port stakeholders on 14th and 15th August 2024.
“The bottles of the opioid were packed in 5,337 cartons with a gross weight of 133,860 kilograms and shipped in five containers from India,” he added.
In Ekiti State, Babafemi also reported that NDLEA operatives, supported by the Nigerian Army, other security agencies, and community youths, raided the Ise forest reserve, Saalaja camp, Ise-Ekiti, on 14th August.
He added that 21,800 kilograms of cannabis sativa on 20 hectares of farmland were destroyed.
The statement continued, “The following day, Thursday 15th August, NDLEA officers on patrol along the Onitsha-Enugu road in Enugu intercepted a Sienna bus marked SKA-24 AG, from which 200.2 kg of cannabis was recovered, and the driver, Okoro Emmanuel, 41, was arrested.
“While Joseph Apeh, 45, and Diamond Nnabuike, 21, were arrested with 145,400 pills of tramadol on Monday 12th August at Gadar Tamburawa, Kano, NDLEA operatives in Ogun State on Tuesday 13th August arrested 70-year-old Fidelis Egede and three others: Samuel Sylvanus, 31; Jato Samson, 33; and Francis Blessing, 28, when they raided a cannabis plantation on six hectares in Alaka village.”
According to Babafemi, on August 13, NDLEA officers patrolling the Kwali-Gwagwalada Expressway in Abuja stopped a truck and took thirty thousand ampoules of pentazocine injection out of it.
Three suspects, Ifeanyi Sunday, Jeremiah Paul, and Edet Ubokobong, were taken into custody, he continued.
According to Babafemi, agents in Niger State detained Ifeanyi Chukwueze in Kontagora town when he had 28,500 tramadol pills hidden in a loudspeaker.
“Their counterparts in Kogi State, on Wednesday, 14th August, apprehended Abba Yakubu with 40,000 pills of the same opioid heading to Kontagora. Another suspect, Tochukwu Onah, 39, was arrested by NDLEA officers at Paparanda, Lokoja, on Thursday, 15th August 2024, with 1,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection,” the statement added.
