By Kazeem Ugbodaga
Operatives of the NDLEA’s Special Operations Unit have arrested two brothers, Ikechukwu and Ugochukwu Ikeabba, for sponsoring drug traffickers who specialize in exporting drugs by ingestion to Vietnam.
Their arrest on Tuesday, September 10, followed a detailed investigation into an earlier case involving Onitsha-based businessman Ibeanusi Solomon Nosike.
NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi disclosed the details in a statement on Sunday.
Nosike, who had been under observation for 12 days, excreted 68 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.282 kg after being arrested at the local wing of Lagos Airport.
He was apprehended on Thursday, August 8, 2024, while attempting to board a flight to Abuja, where he planned to catch a Qatar Airways flight to Vietnam.
Additionally, Babafemi revealed that another Vietnam-bound businessman, Paul Okwuy Mbadugha, 54, was arrested at Abuja Airport on Monday, August 12, during the outward clearance of a Qatar Airways flight to Hanoi.
After four days of observation, Mbadugha excreted 88 wraps of cocaine, weighing 1.710 kg.
At the time of their arrest, the Ikeabba brothers were found with 87 wraps of cocaine dummies used for training drug couriers.
In Gombe State, NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence arrested three suspects—Auwal Abdullahi, Isah Rabiu, and Abubakar Da’u—on Saturday, September 14, along the Bauchi-Gombe road. A search of their DAF truck uncovered 2,490,000 tramadol pills concealed in bags of salt.
In Kaduna State, 23-year-old Idris Adamu was arrested with 41.5 kg of cannabis in Kachia on September 10. Two more suspects, Godiya Sekyen Jikuk, 36, and Yusuf Umaru, 65, were apprehended in Ekiti State on September 11 with 73.6 kg of cannabis.
In Bauchi, 208,920 pills of tramadol and diazepam were seized from Chinedu Asadu, 35, on September 13. Meanwhile, in Lagos, NDLEA operatives recovered 104 kg of cannabis from two suspects, Abba Abdullahi and Mustapha Yahaya, along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway on September 10.
Furthermore, NDLEA operatives at Tincan Port in Lagos, in collaboration with Customs officers, discovered 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup in two containers shipped from India on September 10. The containers had been targeted for a thorough 100 percent examination.
NDLEA Chairman Commends Officers
NDLEA Chairman Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) commended the officers for their successful operations. He encouraged them to continue intensifying efforts to curb drug supply and demand across the country.
PM News
