An 80-room new hotel in Victoria Island Lagos used as
cover for distributing illicit substances has been raided by operatives of the
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) who after hours of combing the
rooms recovered 589 bags of Canadian Loud, a strong strain of cannabis with a
total weight of 417.3 kilograms worth One Billion Forty-Two Million Five
Hundred Thousand Naira (?1,042,500,000) only in street value.
At least, three suspects: Eze Ayitu; Ofuokwu Samuel;
and Emmanuel Ameh were arrested in the course of the operation at the
five-storey hotel building between Friday 25th and Saturday 26th April 2025
while two other suspects: Noble Philip and his partner Kenneth are currently at
large.
Items suspected to be proceeds of illicit drug trade
recovered from the premises housing The Hook Hotel also known as Caesar Hotel
and Caesar Lounge located at 16 Waziri Ibrahim street, off Elsie Femi Pearse
street, Victoria Island, Lagos, include: Toyota Prado Landcruiser Jeep (Lagos
AKD 472 OZ); Toyota Sienna Vehicle (Lagos KJA 79 HJ); Volkswagen Delivery Van
(Lagos AAA 525 JE); Kia Ceranto Car (Lagos BDG 860 GQ); Grand Caravan Dodge
(Lagos APP 847 YF); 74 new TV sets; 10 used TV sets; and 13 refrigerators,
among others.
In another major interdiction in Jigawa state with a
follow up operation in Kano, NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence on
Wednesday 23rd April seized consignments of opioids being moved from Kano to
Niger Republic and Yobe state through Jigawa. The
psychoactive substances were being moved in a Toyota
Sienna vehicle marked ABJ 182 NW at about 2:30am on Wednesday along Kano-
Ringim road, Gumel town when anti-narcotic officers on patrol intercepted them
with two suspects: Abba Ibrahim, 28, and Shuaibu Umar, 29 arrested.
Recovered from the Sienna vehicle were 200,000 pills
of tramadol 250mg and 217,500 capsules of pregabalin. A swift follow up
operation in Kano led to the arrest of the supplier, 41-year-old Jamilu
Muhammad, at his residence located at Mil Tara, Layin Technical area of Kano
while additional 1,584,000 pills of tramadol 250mg stacked inside a Nissan
18-seater bus marked DAL 372 XA and a
room in his house were discovered and evacuated. This brings the total number
of the recovered opioids to 2,001,500 pills.
Barely a week after NDLEA officers of the Directorate
of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) uncovered 20 parcels of cocaine
concealed inside religious books going to Saudi Arabia at a logistics company
in Lagos, the operatives have again intercepted another shipment of 46 wraps of
cocaine weighing 547grams hidden in body cream going to the Middle East
country. The seizure was made on Wednesday 23rd April at a courier firm in
Lagos. Another consignment intercepted same day include: 1.8kg pentazocine
injection and 60grams bromazepam tablets heading to Canada.
At the Seme border area of Badagry Lagos, three
Ghanaian ladies were on Sunday 20th April arrested at the Gbaji check point by
NDLEA operatives while attempting to smuggle combined 4.8kilograms of Ghana
Loud, a strong strain of cannabis into Nigeria. The suspects arrested include:
Haziza Zubairu, 42; Samirat Mustapha, 43; and Jamila Salifu, 26.
In Kano, a 60-year-old grandma Safiya Shamsu was on
Friday 25th April nabbed at Samegu area of Kumbotso LGA with 5.6kg skunk, a
strain of cannabis, while another suspect Muntari Labaran, 35, was taken into
custody following the seizure of 100 litres of codeine syrup from him at Yelwa
area of Dala LGA.
A total of 3,814.9kg skunk was destroyed on two farms
in Ugbodu community, Ovia North East
LGA, Edo state on Thursday 24th April when NDLEA operatives raided the
plantations where three suspects: Samuel Samson, 26; Daniel Peter, 20; and Abel
Edah, 31, were arrested.
The War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, social advocacy
activities by NDLEA Commands equally continued across the country in the past
week. Some of them include: WADA sensitization lecture delivered to students
and staff of Dan-Doro Community Arabic Secondary School, Doro, Katsina; St.
James Anglican School, Badariya, Kebbi;
Federal Government Girls College, Tambuwal, Sokoto; and members of Oganiru age
grade, Onitsha, Anambra, while the Lagos State Strategic Command of NDLEA paid
WADA advocacy visit to the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, HRM Oba Kabir Adewale
Shotobi, among others.
While commending the officers and men of DOGI, Lagos, Kano, Jigawa, Edo and Seme Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) equally praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for ensuring a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
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