Home Metro Italy-based businesswoman, arrested at Lagos airport with 6kg of tramadol
Metro - December 22, 2024

Italy-based businesswoman, arrested at Lagos airport with 6kg of tramadol

... Arrested businessman at Kano airport for body packing large consignment of cocaine, nabs ex-convict, South Africa-bound drug shipments at Lagos airport; recovers 1 million pills of opioids in Borno, Anambra raids

 

Stanley Ihedigbo

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested Italy-based businesswoman Cynthia Akaeen at the Lagos airport while attempting to board a Royal Air Maroc flight to Italy via Addis Ababa with 9,190 tablets of various brands of tramadol weighing 6.00kg.

According to the Director, Media & Advocacy, NDLEA, Mr. Femi Babafemi, Akeem, the lady was intercepted during the outward clearance of passengers, at the departure point of terminal 2.

He noted that Akaeen was promised 1,000 Euros upon successful delivery of the consignment in Italy.

The agency thwarted the efforts of an import and export businessman, Olisaka Chibuzo Calistus, to smuggle 256 wraps of cocaine weighing 6 kilograms into the country through the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, MAKIA, Kano.

The seizure, which was the single largest interception of cocaine at the Kano airport since the creation of MAKIA Command of NDLEA in 2006, was made on Sunday, 15th December 202,4, during the inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 941 from Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Olisaka, who claims to be in the import and export business, was subjected to body screening, during which he was found to have packed hundreds of cocaine pellets in his body.

A similar attempt by an ex-convict, Olanrewaju Bada Akorede, to export a consignment of Rohypnol to South Africa through the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja Lagos was equally frustrated by NDLEA officers at the airport. The consignment was hidden in a cargo containing gari, shoes, men’s singlets, and other items.

Olarenwaju was convicted for a similar crime earlier this year following his arrest on 12th December 2023 for attempting to ship 4.90kg tramadol and 2.10kg Rohypnol to South Africa through the export shed of the Lagos airport.

He was sentenced to two years imprisonment by a Federal High Court in Lagos with an option to pay a fine of N900,000, which he paid, and was freed before returning to repeat the same crime.

No fewer than 418,330 pills of tramadol 225mg, 100mg, and tapentadol 250mg, as well as 8,000 bottles of codeine-based syru,p, were recovered from a warehouse at a building material market in Onitsha, Anambra sta,te, on Tues,day, 17th Dece,mber, when NDLEA operatives raided the market following credible intelligence.

At the Tincan Island port in Lagos, a total of 180,000 bottles of codeine syrup were recovered on Wednesday, 18th December, from a container that originated from Mundra, India.

The seizure was made during a joint examination of the container by men of NDLEA, Nigerian Customs Service, Department of State Security (DSS), Nigeria Police Force, and other security agencies at the port, while a suspect Makata Emmanuel, who is the consignee and notify party, was promptly taken into custody.

A total of 293,000 capsules of tramadol, a pistol and 26 rounds of 7.65mm live ammunition were recovered from the duo of Ishaya Wabba, 54, and Samaila Audu, 44, when they were arrested in a Toyota Sienna bus at Pompomari Bypass, Maiduguri, Borno state, while another suspect Sanusi Abdul Hamid, 37, was nabbed at Gwange area of the state capital with 260, 000 capsules of the same psychoactive substance on Monday 16th December.

A 35-year-old suspect Modu Kolera was equally arrested on Wednesday 18th December at Custom area of Maiduguri with 8.5kg cannabis; 5,000 pills of tramadol; 7,500 tabs of diazepam; 14,500 tablets of exol and 50 litres of ‘suck and die’, a new psychoactive substance, in his Volkswagen Golf car marked DKW 812 AA.

While a suspect Gafar Saminu, 30, was arrested on Wednesday 18th December with 33.5 kilograms of cannabis sativa, at Ayete, Oyo state, NDLEA operatives in Enugu same day raided the Aria new market where they recovered 94kg of same substance.

In Lagos, a consignment of 32 kilograms ephedrine, a precursor chemical going to the South East was on Monday 16th December recovered at the Young Shall Grow Luxurious Vehicles Park, Maza-maza.

With the same vigour, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA), sensitization activities to schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week.

These include: WADA sensitisation lecture to students and staff of Wajah Girls Government Day Secondary School, Hong, Adamawa; students and staff of Government Girls Tahfizul Quran Salihawa, Gwarzo, Kano; students and staff of Riyadul Quran Islamiyya School, Bagudo, Kebbi state, among others.

While commending the officers and men of MAKIA, MMIA, Anambra, Borno, Lagos, Oyo, Enugu, and Tincan Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) urged them and their compatriots across the country not to rest on their oars as they intensify their balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

CHRICED condemns FG proposed 12-4 education reform as symptomatic of deeper issues

    Stanley Ihedigbo   Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education…