The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, said its operatives have intercepted cocaine and other illicit drugs valued at over N10 billion in separate operations across the country, while also recovering 401 rounds of military-grade ammunition concealed in kegs of palm oil.
The agency disclosed this in a statement issued on Sunday by its Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
According to the statement, a 55-year-old businessman, Onuigbo Ndubisi Chinedu, a clothing dealer at Balogun Market, Lagos Island, was arrested for allegedly attempting to export 3.30 kilograms of cocaine concealed in the walls of cartons used to package food items bound for the United Kingdom.
Babafemi said the cocaine consignment was intercepted at the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on Wednesday, July 22, by NDLEA operatives.
Three cargo agents, Nkwor Onyekachukwu Justina, Adeleke Abiola Taoheed and Ukanwa Grace Pilgrim, were initially arrested during investigations, leading to the arrest of Kenneth Okakpu, who allegedly delivered the consignment for shipment.
Further investigations identified Onuigbo as the alleged mastermind of the syndicate.
He was arrested on Thursday, July 23, while allegedly attempting to send another cocaine shipment to the UK.
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives arrested a 31-year-old entrepreneur, Emmanuella Chukwu-Edo, at her Surulere residence in Lagos on Tuesday, July 21, following the seizure of her 2.80kg consignment of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, which arrived from the United States on a United Airlines flight a day earlier.
The agency also recovered 2.24 million pills of Tapentadol 250mg
