Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have arrested drug syndicate operated by a Chinese man, 58-year-old Tianzhen Yen (alias Jackie) at his hotel in Ikeja area of Lagos.
Officers of the Seme Special Area Command of the Agency had on Thursday 21st November intercepted a 40-year-old suspect, Yakubu Emmanuel Mark in a commercial bus going to Ghana at the Gbaji checkpoint along Badagry-Seme expressway based on credible intelligence.
When he was searched, a total of 750grams of cocaine were found in his bag. A swift follow up operation was organized to trace and arrest the kingpin behind the trans-border drug trafficking syndicate, who turned out to be a Chinese citizen, Tianzhen Yen.
He was eventually traced to MC Hotel behind Alade market, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos.
When his hotel room was searched, 4.3grams of cocaine; a gram of methamphetamine; two electronic weighing scales; and Chinese National Identification Number Card, among other exhibits were recovered while he was arrested in the vicinity of the hotel.
At the Tincan seaport in Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Friday 22nd November intercepted 92 parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis with a combined weight of 23.25kg concealed in two vehicles imported from Canada: a Nissan car and a GMC bus.
The discovery was made during a joint examination of a container from Canada by NDLEA officers, men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and other stakeholders.
In Rivers state, NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports complex, Onne, on Thursday 21st November intercepted two containers of imported opioids during a joint examination with men of Customs Service and other security agencies.
A total of 168,000 bottles of codeine based syrup worth N1,176,000,000billion only in street value, were recovered from one of the containers while the second one contains 4,500,000 pills of super royal tramadol 225mg valued at N3,150,000,000 billion only, bringing the combined value of both the codeine and tramadol consignments to N4,326,000,000billion only.
In Ekiti state, NDLEA operatives on Sunday 17th November arrested a 50-year-old physically challenged woman, Mustapha Boja, with 286 grams of Colorado and Loud strains of cannabis at Araromi street, Ikere-Ekiti, while 64kg of cannabis sativa was recovered at Akinyele motor park, Ibadan, Oyo state on Thursday 21st November.
Not less than 1,200.5 kilograms of same psychoactive substance were seized during raids by NDLEA officers in parts of Edo state. At Utese forest in Ovia North East LGA, 463.5kg was recovered on Thursday 21st November; while 507kg was seized at a compound in Owan village, Ovia LGA where the duo of David Ojo Ederin, 60, and Afoje Frank, 24, were arrested on Friday 22nd November. Another suspect, Godwin Okhoya, 40, was nabbed with 230kg of same substance at Okpuje, Owan West LGA.
In Kano, four suspects: Usman Sani, 25; Abdul Mohd, 28; Bunu Ali,27; and Umar Musa, 30, were on Tuesday 19th November arrested by NDLEA operatives at Gadar Tamburawa, Zaria- Kano road, with 100 blocks of cannabis weighing 45kg, while Ayuba Umar Zaranda, 55, was nabbed with 124kg cannabis at Pengana village, Toro LGA, Bauchi state.
With the same vigour, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization activities to schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week.
These include: WADA enlightenment lecture to students and staff of Sardauna Academy, Malumfashi, Katsina state; Community Secondary School, Ede-Oballa, Nsukka, Enugu state; Government Secondary School, Riji, Kano state; Government Secondary School, Ogba, Ahoada East LGA, Rivers state and the youths and community leaders of Ilawe Ekiti, Ekiti state, among others.
