Ephedrine, skunk, laughing gas consignments intercepted by NDLEA at Lagos airport
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, says its operatives have intercepted various quantities of ephedrine, skunk and nitrous oxide, popularly known as laughing gas, concealed in semovita packs and dry pepper at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
NDLEA disclosed that the drugs were being shipped to South Africa and Kenya by members of Transnational Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO), with some of them promptly arrested and their properties seized.
This was announced in a statement issued on Sunday by Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA’s Director of Media & Advocacy, National Headquarters Abuja.
Babafemi said the agency, through credible intelligence, on Friday intercepted a notorious drug trafficker, Suleiman Babatunde Oba, who is a member of a cartel distributing cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ephedrine between Nigeria, Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, and Europe.
According to the statement, Suleiman was arrested while attempting to board a Rwanda Air flight to South Africa with two boxes loaded with ephedrine sealed in semovita packs, a substance the agency said is a precursor chemical and active ingredient in the production of methamphetamine.
Items recovered from Suleiman’s house include a white Toyota Venza car with registration number LSR 410 HT, a Mercedes Benz SUV marked LSD 998HP, phones and vital documents needed for further investigation.
Similarly, the Agency said it had seized 25.60kg ephedrine from a trafficker, Arua Emmanuel Onwuka, at the Lagos airport, a seizure that has also been traced to the same cartel whose identified members are currently on the run, noting that an official of the airport, Godwin Shedrack (a.k.a Goddy), fingered as a member of the syndicate, is also under investigation.
In the same vein, NDLEA announced that its operatives attached to the NAHCO export shed of the airport on Saturday thwarted an attempt by another syndicate to export 10.40kg skunk concealed with scent leaf and pepper, going to Nairobi, Kenya, with a suspect, Ekechukwu Sixtus Ndubuisi, arrested in connection with the seizure.
The agency also frustrated another bid to export a consignment of 180 canisters of laughing gas to South Africa by a freight agent, Oyekola Gbenga Akeem, for a fee of N2 million as its operatives seized the cargo and arrested the suspect.
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