Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have busted a trans-border drug trafficking syndicate, arresting four members in intelligence-led operations during which multi-million-naira worth of tramadol pills concealed in the bumper and false bottom of sienna buses heading to border towns were recovered.
According to a statement on Sunday by the NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, following weeks of intelligence and surveillance operations by operatives of the Directorate of Intelligence in NDLEA, a Sienna bus marked ABJ 452 HG was intercepted at Nasarawa- Toto road, Keffi, Nasarawa state on Tuesday, January 27, 2025 at 6am.
He said two suspects: Zahradeen Adamu, 27 and Abubakar Usman, 44, were arrested in the vehicle coming from Onitsha, Anambra State enroute Yola, Adamawa State.
Babafemi explained that a second Sienna bus driven by Abba Usman, 48, was also intercepted.
During a search of the two vehicles, he said specially constructed steel compartments were discovered after the removal of the back bumper where a total of 190, 960 pills of tramadol were concealed and, in the space, designed to house the spare tyre of the vehicles.
Babafemi said investigations revealed that an Onitsha, Anambra State-based dealer, Kingsley Mbaeri, was the supplier of the seized tramadol consignment.
He said a swift follow up operation led to the arrest of Mbaeri at his Uga Street, Onitsha home on January 29.
According to the NDLEA, two vehicles: a Toyota Corolla car marked FGG 948 MF and a Toyota Sienna bus marked GWA 23 HH were recovered from his house.
In another interdiction, Babafemi said operatives of the Intelligence Department intercepted a commercial bus coming from Onitsha, Anambra State at Abaji checkpoint, FCT Abuja on February 4. A passenger in the bus, Chimezie Henry Ojingwa, 32, carrying motor spare parts in a black bag was arrested.
He said when his bag was searched, 404.47grams of methamphetamine; 506.49grams of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis and 262.32grams of dimethyl sulfone, a precursor substance for mixing meth, all of which were concealed in the motor parts were recovered.
In Cross River State, he said NDLEA officers on patrol along Ogoja -Abakaliki road, Yahe, on Thursday, February 13, intercepted 170,000 pills of tramadol in a truck driven by Paul Chukwudi, 31, while operatives at the Apapa seaport in Lagos on Tuesday, February 11 recovered 85,400 bottles of codeine-based syrup in a container imported from India.
He said two suspects: Halilu Isa and Gambo Umaru were nabbed at Bama road, Maiduguri, Borno State on Friday, February 14 with 60 compressed blocks of skunk, a strain of cannabis, weighing 72kg, while NDLEA operatives in Ekiti State on Tuesday, February 11 raided a notorious drug joint at Iloda Street, Ikole-Ekiti where they arrested three suspects: Bala Muhammed, 57; Yahaya Adamu, 55, and Abdullahi Shehu, 30. A total of 83 kilograms of skunk were recovered from them.
In Lagos, Babafemi said 28-year-old Samiat Olabisi Yussuf was on Saturday, February 15, arrested by operatives during a raid of her Lekki home where 169.5 litres of nitrous oxide popularly known as laughing gas and 111grams of Loud were recovered. Not less than 132.84 kilograms of skunk were recovered from two suspects: Ibrahim Usman, 40, and Solomon James, 40, in Taraba. While Usman was nabbed with 88kg of Arizona and Ghana Loud at Wukari, James was arrested with 44.84kg of the same substance at Takanaba, Sabongari, in Jalingo Local Government Area.
