The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has arrested a couple identified as Mmadu Agbakoba and Ijeoma Agbakoba as well as their associate. The Agency in the process of the arrest, recovered drug substance worth N2.1 billion.
This was contained in a statement by the Director of Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday in Abuja.
Disclosing to the arrest, Babafemi said the couple were apprehended during a raid in Lagos.
He said the man and his wife were arrested alongside a Lagos-based high-profile cocaine syndicate led by Ifeoma Okoye.
Babafemi said large consignments of the class A drug meant for export and local distribution were recovered from the suspects. He said the raid was carried out by a special operations unit of the agency following months of intelligence gathering and surveillance on the syndicate.
He noted that the syndicate was notorious for packaging, distributing and trafficking cocaine within and outside Nigeria.
Babafemi pointed out that the 54-year-old Mmadu Agbakoba was arrested at Ago Palace Way, Okota Lagos. While Ijeoma Agbakoba, 39, and their associate, Ifeoma Okoye, 31, were nabbed at Plot 2205 Eugene Ndubisi close, Lilly Estate, in the Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos. Okoye, he said doubled as their stash keeper.
He said, “Seven parcels of cocaine with a total weight of 7.652kg were recovered from Mmadu at Ago Palace Way.
“Not less than 122 compressed pellets of the same drug weighing 2.42kg were seized from the duo of Agbakoba and Ifeoma at Lilly Estate.
“This brings to the total seizure to 10.1 kilograms valued at over N2.1 billion in street value.”
In a related development, Babafemi said NDLEA operatives in Benue State on Thursday, July 4, intercepted a consignment of 350 grams of cocaine. The interception was made at a checkpoint along Enugu Road, Otukpo.
According to him, the illicit drug was concealed in an MP3 speaker sent as a waybill parcel.
Babafemi said, “A swift follow-up operation at Flight Motor Park in Otukpo led to the arrest of the owner, 25-year-old Odeh Anthony.”
He also stated that on Wednesday, July 3, NDLEA officers on a stop-and-search operation along Ngurore – Yola Road in Adamawa State arrested a Chadian, Yves Ahmat Gali in a commercial bus from Kano to Yola.
The Director stated that Gali was found with a loudspeaker used to conceal 20 compressed blocks. Also found with him were nine plastic containers of Loud of a strong strain of cannabis weighing 5.200kg.
Also on Wednesday, July 3 the NDLEA operatives arrested a youth corps member, Yusuf Abdulrahma. He was arrested at Corpers Lodge, Sumaila area of the city with 1.250kg of Loud in Kano State.
In Osun State, Babafemi said the head of the Akarabata Community in Ile-Ife, Osun, Ba’ale Ige Babatunde, 50, was also arrested. He was arrested on Friday, July 5 with fresh cannabis plants that weighed 5kg.
He also stated that two suspects, Monday Ali, 49, and Jimoh Alewi, 37, were arrested by the NDLEA. The duo, he said, were arrested during a raid at Ikota forest in Ifedore LGA, Ondo State.
Babafemi said a total of 42,500kg cannabis was destroyed on 17 hectares of farmland in the process. While 73.5kg of the same substance was recovered during a five-day operation that ended on Monday, July 1.
source: BusinessDay
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