The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested an 80-year-old suspected drug dealer and several other suspects after intercepting more than 1.5 million pills of Tramadol concealed in two trucks that entered Nigeria through the Togo–Benin Republic border.
The agency disclosed this in a statement on Sunday by its Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
According to the agency, the intelligence-led operation followed the recovery of 558,900 tramadol pills from another truck intercepted along the same route a week earlier.
The first truck, which was heading to Kano, was intercepted on July 2 along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. NDLEA officers recovered 853,000 pills of Tramadol 250mg hidden inside a specially fabricated compartment beneath the truck’s cargo floor and arrested the 22-year-old driver, Jabir Kabiru.
Two days later, on July 4, operatives tracked and intercepted a second truck travelling on the same route. A search uncovered 777,000 tramadol pills concealed in another hidden compartment, while 22-year-old Muhammed Nuhu was arrested.
Investigations revealed that the three intercepted consignments belonged to the same transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria corridor.
The NDLEA also intercepted 4.7 kilograms of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, at the cargo terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
The drugs arrived from Canada aboard British Airways and Ethiopian Airlines flights in cartons labelled “Odugwu.”
Three suspects—Ali Rotimi Samson, Orimolade Oluwagbenga, and Edeh Onyeamachi Stanislus—were initially arrested during the investigation.
Further investigations led to the arrest of 44-year-old businesswoman Chioma Nneka Mokeme, who allegedly admitted owning the consignments.
According to the NDLEA, she claimed a friend based in Canada introduced her to the illegal drug business.
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives in Rivers State arrested 80-year-old Chika Ugwoji in Ahoada after he was found with 800 grams of skunk, a strain of cannabis.
In Edo State, the agency arrested a couple—Christian Chukwuka, 32, and Nwanneka Christian, 33—after raiding a suspected drug warehouse along Sapele Road in Benin City.
Recovered from the warehouse were 22 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5kg and 192.67kg of Canadian Loud.
The NDLEA also arrested 38-year-old Hajara Abdullahi, a Chadian national, alongside her Nigerian accomplice, Abdulkarim Jidda, in Lagos.
The arrests followed the seizure of 50,000 pills of Tramadol 225mg in Kogi State, with investigations linking the consignment to the two suspects.
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