The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested 60-year-old grandmother and a pregnant woman during interdiction operations in which 5,527.15 kilograms of methamphetamine and cannabis sativa, as well as 132,090 tablets of tramadol and 2,000 bottles of codeine were recovered across five States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.
NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said the grandma, Mrs. Ibinosun Sandra Esther, was arrested in Ibadan, Oyo State in a follow-up operation following the seizure of 5.5kg Loud variant of cannabis imported into the country from South Africa.
The consignment, which she claimed was sent to her by her daughter, was concealed in two giant speakers as part of a consolidated cargo that arrived the NAHCO import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja?, Lagos on board an Air Peace Airline flight.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives, on Saturday, November 26, intercepted 1.4 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed inside custard tins packed among cosmetics and foodstuffs going to Brazil via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight.
The NDLEA said a cargo agent, Salako Omolara Fausat, who brought the bag containing the illicit drug to the airport and an intending passenger to Brazil, Anyanwu Christian, who was to travel with the consignment were promptly arrested.
Also, another attempt by a freight agent, Adebisi Aina Hafsat, to export 3,000 tablets of tramadol concealed in motor spare parts to Banjul, The Gambia, through the NAHCO export shed was equally thwarted by anti-narcotics operatives, who seized the consignment and arrested her on Monday, November 28, while a follow-up operation to Ebute-Meta area of Lagos the following day, Tuesday, November 29, led to the arrest of the actual owner, Afam Chibuke Stanley, who is a spare parts seller.
This was followed by the seizure of 100,000 tablets of Royal brand of Tramadol 200mg with a gross weight of 68.90 kilograms imported from Karachi, Pakistan on Ethiopian Airlines at the SAHCO import shed.
In Abuja, NDLEA operatives stormed the warehouse of a notorious drug lord and an ex-convict, Ibrahim Momoh, alias ‘Ibrahim Bendel’, who escaped from prison custody to return to his criminal trade and recovered 81 jumbo bags of cannabis weighing 1,278kgs.
The NDLEA promptly declared him wanted and arrested his warehouse keeper, 55-year-old Ghanaian, Richard Forson Gordon.
Recall that Momoh was first arrested on November 27, 2014 with the same substance weighing 385.1kgs, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on April 22, 2020 but escaped from jail after three months.
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