The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested six drug lords from Adamawa, Anambra, and Lagos states, as well as Cameroon, and demolished two significant cross-border drug trafficking syndicates.
The group had been under the NDLEA’s surveillance for several months because they were major drug suppliers to terrorist organisations in Cameroon and Nigeria, according to a statement issued on Sunday by the agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi.
Babafemi stated that “After months of intelligence gathering and painstaking surveillance, operatives of the NDLEA have dismantled two major cross-border drug trafficking syndicates, with cocaine and opioids worth billions of naira recovered. Six leaders of the cartels were arrested in different parts of the country.
“The syndicates, which include Nigerians based in Mubi, Adamawa State; Onitsha, Anambra State; and Lagos State, as well as Cameroonians, came under the NDLEA’s radar after they were suspected of being major suppliers of drugs to terrorist groups operating in Nigeria and Cameroon.
“Leaders of the syndicates so far arrested include Ibrahim Bawuro, Najib Ibrahim, Ibrahim Umar, Nelson Anayo, Ezeh Martin, and Adejumo Ishola. Intelligence gathered revealed that some psychoactive substances, including tramadol, were often sourced by Ibrahim Bawuro and Ibrahim Najib from a notorious drug dealer in Onitsha, Nelson Udechukwu Anayo, and were then packed and concealed in vehicles at the premises of Ezeh Amaechi Martin, an associate of Udechukwu.
“The duo of Ibrahim Bawuro and Ibrahim Najib would transport the drugs from Onitsha to Yola and subsequently to other parts of the North and Cameroon in specially constructed false compartments of vehicles, which travelled from the East to the North at night.”
Babafemi added that Bawuro and Najib were detained in Taraba the day after being trailed from Onitsha on October 7, 2024, when they had gone to buy another consignment. When they realised NDLEA agents were pursuing them, they abandoned a Toyota Avensis saloon car with the license plate DKA 57 TT on the Jalingo-Yola motorway, where 276,500 tramadol pills were found.
“Follow-up operations were subsequently carried out in Delta and Anambra states, where Ezeh Amaechi Martin and Udechukwu Nelson Anayo were arrested by operatives of the NDLEA Directorate of Intelligence, which coordinated the entire effort with their counterparts in Taraba, Adamawa, Delta, and Anambra,” he added.
Babafemi added that Ishola, another syndicate boss, was detained on Tuesday, November 5, at the Seme border in Lagos while travelling from Ghana with 600 grammes of synthetic cannabis and 3.3 kilogrammes of cocaine. After months of intelligence and monitoring on the 37-year-old’s illegal cross-border operations, he was taken into custody.
In a different operation in Lagos, Babafemi reported that on November 6, agents at the Apapa seaport seized 31,750,000 pills of the restricted opioid Voltron, which contains 240 mg. The pills were disguised as 100 mg diclofenac sodium tablets and were wrapped and hidden in a container imported from India.
He added, “The discovery was made during a joint examination of the container with officers of the Customs Service and other security agencies.
“At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), import shed, Ikeja, Lagos, NDLEA officers on Tuesday, November 5, intercepted a 700-gram consignment of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis. A software engineer, Olu Marshal, who showed up to collect the package, was promptly arrested, and a follow-up search of his home in Lekki led to the recovery of drug paraphernalia, including a cannabis crusher.”
Babafemi added that among other interceptions, on November 8, 2024, operators stopped another suspect, Orji Nnaorji, from trying to smuggle 32.50 kg of codeine syrup and 5.70 kg of cannabis to London, UK, hidden in tiger nut cargo through the Lagos airport’s export shed.
