As the fight against illicit drugs continues the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has arrested a total of 48 drug barons in the last three years.
This was disclosed by the chairman/chief executive officer of NDLEA, Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd).
The latest of this is coming after the sting operation that led to the bursting Mr. Reginald Peter Chidiebere, a suspected drug barons, who is the head of Nigeria’s syndicate of international drug organizations on February 19, 2024.
Marwa said: “to this end, we have arrested 48 barons in three years, 15 of whom are already serving jail terms while the rest are facing trials in court. This should serve as a warning to others that there is no hiding place in Nigeria for anyone involved in the illicit drug trade.”
Giving more details on the February 19 operations, NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi quoted the NDLEA chairman to have said: “It started on February 10, 2024, when NDLEA operatives of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Command intercepted a suspicious package at the SAHCO Import Shed of the airport’s Cargo Terminal. The consignment was concealed in 15 cartons of 2300-watt metal cutting machines. Each carton was stocked with three blocks of high-grade heroin. In total, we recovered 45 blocks of the illicit substance with a total weight of 49.70kg.
“Next, we conducted a follow up operation at a company’s warehouse in the Shogunle area of Oshodi, Lagos and arrested the warehouse manager, whose name is Ajayi Imole Moses. Thereafter, we set up an ambush for the expected receiver of the consignment who was duly arrested when he showed up for collection. This receiver, whose name is Adinnu Felix Chinedu, confessed during interrogation, that he is the main distributor for a drug syndicate whose membership is spread across Nigeria.”
“At this point, it was clear that we were dealing with a syndicate. This syndicate has a wide network in Nigeria because the consignments we seized were marked with several codenames, showing that they belonged to different members of this organised criminal group. Furthermore, in our follow-up operation, we uncovered from the suspect a long list of receivers of illicit drugs. In the end, we were able to identify the kingpin of the syndicate here in Nigeria and his name is Reginald Peter Chidiebere. Our investigations showed that he owns the Golden Platinum Hotel and Suite, located at 16 Reginald Peter Chidiebere Street, Hope Estate, Ago Palace.
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