***Seizes N3.2bn Drugs, AK-47
In a nationwide crackdown, the NDLEA has busted a ₦3.2bn drug syndicate involving two octogenarians—a convicted grandfather and an 82-year-old grandmother running a family drug ring—while seizing massive opioid shipments at seaports and across several states.
The shocking arrests include 80-year-old Ayuba Ashiru, a notorious ex-convict who returned to the drug trade barely a year after serving a 10-year prison sentence, and 82-year-old Mrs. Uloma Uchechi Sunday, arrested alongside her daughter in Abia for operating a drug business inherited from her late son.
Director of Media & Advocacy, Femi Babafemi in a statement explained that in Kaduna State, NDLEA operatives arrested Ashiru on Wednesday, May 14th in Sabon Gari, recovering 2.3kg of skunk neatly packaged for street sales.
the statement indicated that Ashiru brazenly admitted to being in the illicit drug trade for 46 years, boasting of his experience in what he called his “business.”
In Abia State, the statement indicated that operatives raided the home of Mrs. Sunday on Saturday, May 17th at Umuaguma Ntigha Uzor village, where they discovered methamphetamine, tramadol, skunk, and ₦130,600 in cash. The 82-year-old and her daughter, Chisom Uchechi, 32, confessed to taking over the drug operation after the death of the family’s previous drug dealer—her son.
Explaining further, it stated that in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, NDLEA officers intercepted a container packed with three million pills of tapentadol and carisoprodol valued at over ₦2.1 billion. The seizure was made during a joint examination on Wednesday, May 14th with Customs and other security agencies.
Similarly, at the Apapa Port in Lagos on Tuesday, May 13th, another container—falsely declared as auto parts from India—was opened to reveal 169,800 bottles of codeine syrup worth ₦1.1 billion.
In Kwara State, NDLEA busted a student drug dealer, Ibrahim Oladimeji Abdulateef, an HND 1 student of Laboratory Science at Kwara Polytechnic. He was caught with 650g of Loud cannabis pre-packed in 149 cups for on-campus distribution. Two others were arrested in Ilorin with 199,200 pills of tramadol.
At a courier firm in Lagos, officers intercepted a shipment of 250g of cocaine cleverly stuffed inside a female headgear bound for Australia.
In a dramatic highway bust on Friday, May 16th, NDLEA patrol officers along the Abuja–Kaduna expressway stopped a suspect, Ismail Isah, 29, and discovered an AK-47 rifle and two magazines hidden inside a sack of maize. He has been transferred to appropriate security authorities.
More seizures included, 143kg of skunk from a vehicle on Mokwa–Jebba road in Niger State594.8kg of cannabis in Karu, Nasarawa, with a 60-year-old suspect arrested, 67.5kg of skunk recovered on Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos, 198kg of cannabis seized in Jigawa State and 5,350 pills of tramadol and diazepam recovered in Taraba.
Chairman/CEO of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended the Agency’s operatives for their professionalism and commitment. He praised the balance of drug supply reduction and demand reduction through enforcement and community outreach.
As part of its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy, the NDLEA also held sensitization lectures in schools across the country including Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Osun, and Rivers.
“The NDLEA will not rest. Whether you’re a cartel kingpin, a student dealer, or hiding weapons in sacks of maize—we will find you,” Marwa declared.
