Along the Zaria-Kano Expressway, agents of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have apprehended a 28-year-old female bandits’ supplier Bilkisu Suleiman. She was found to have 249 rounds of live 7.62 mm ammunition, which was hidden in a black nylon bag. According to the agency, she was detained while travelling to Kakumi village in Katsina State to provide ammo to a known bandit.
On Monday, January 1, 2024, New Year’s Day, NDLEA agents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, seized a shipment of Colorado, a potent strain of cannabis, hidden inside American-imported boxing gear.
Femi Babafemi, the Director of NDLEA’s Media and Advocacy Division, revealed that a week-long intelligence-led operation to apprehend the receiver was completed last Saturday. This came after Olorunfunmi Saheed Olakunle, 38, was apprehended and successfully tracked down for distributing the dangerous psychoactive substance to dealers throughout Lagos State.
On Monday, January 1, the shipment arrived in the nation via Cairo, flying on an Egypt Airlines aircraft identified as boxing kits. According to Saheed, he sends these shipments to various receivers on behalf of his childhood friend Sagir Salami, who lives in the US. The weight of the most recent cargo is 1.80 kg overall.
In the meantime, Bilkisu Suleman, a 28-year-old woman who supplies bandits with ammunition, topped the list of 12 other suspects detained by NDLEA agents during interdiction operations in the states of Kaduna, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun.
On Wednesday, January 3, while on patrol along the Zaria-Kano expressway, Bilkisu was stopped by NDLEA officials for carrying 249 rounds of live 7.62 mm ammunition hidden in a black nylon bag that was carried in her lady’s handbag.
She was apprehended while travelling to Kakumi village in Katsina State to provide ammo to a known bandit. She was then taken to the Nigeria Police Force’s Kaduna State headquarters for additional investigation.
On Tuesday, January 2, military authorities at Lagos’ Bonny Camp Cantonment moved a 37-year-old suspect, Francis Suru, along with 63 giant bags weighing 2,104.2 kg of Ghana Loud, a cannabis strain, and a truck to the NDLEA’s Lagos State headquarters.
On December 12, 2023, NDLEA agents had previously apprehended the suspect and the drug exhibits near the military cantonment entrance in Bonny Camp, Victoria Island. However, some armed escorts began to disrupt the operation with intermittent gunfire. This attracted the attention of soldiers from the cantonment, who finally stepped in and took control of the suspect and consignment before handing them over to the agency.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Niger State, last Thursday, during a stop-and-search operation, along Suleja-Kaduna road, intercepted a J5 bus coming from Ondo State to Zaria, Kaduna State with 23 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5kg. Two suspects: Umar Musa, 26 and Isachiru Abubakar, were arrested in connection with the seizure.
A female drug trafficker, Queen Onyema, 27, was arrested last Saturday, in a commercial bus en route to Abuja, along Okene-Lokoja Expressway, with 12 compressed blocks of cannabis weighing 4.6kg and 0.046kg designer drugs concealed in an indomie carton; another suspect Mubarak Sani, 20, was nabbed at the Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano, on Monday, January 1, with 445.9k kilograms of the same psychoactive substance.
In Borno, four suspects: Zanna Alhaji Dala, 32; Musa Umar, 21; Mushe Ibrahim, 23, and Shehu Idris, 19, were arrested at the Pomfomari Bye Pass area of the state with 60kg of cannabis. Also, in Osun, NDLEA operatives on patrol, along Osogbo-Ode Omu road, on New Year’s Day, Monday, January 1, intercepted a consignment of illicit drugs sent through a waybill from Lagos to Osogbo. A follow-up operation led to the arrest of Ibrahim Olawale, 43. The drugs recovered include cannabis sativa totalling 10.974kg. A digital scale, N18,000 monetary exhibit and customised wrapping papers for Colorado were also seized.
NDLEA Commands across the 36 states and the FCT equally continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation lectures in schools, communities, workplaces and others. Some of these include: WADA sensitisation lecture for students of Nurul Huda Community Islamiyya school, Farin Yaro, Katsina; members of the first aid group of Jamaatul Izalatul Bidi’a Waiqamatus Sunnah (JIBWIS) at Ajilari community school, Gomari, Maiduguri, Borno; WADA sensitisation lecture at the 2024 Oke Afo youth day, Olorunda LCDA Lagos and WADA advocacy visit to the Emir of Gaya, Alhaji Aliyu Ibrahim Gaya by the Kano state command of the agency.
Commending the arrests and seizures of the past week by officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun Commands, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (retd), charged them and their compatriots across all formations of the agency to continue to remain vigilant and double their drug demand reduction as well as drug supply reduction efforts in the new year.
Source: The Sun
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