NDLEA Nabs Vietnam-Bound Man for Cocaine, Seizes Nationwide Drug Shipments

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 54-year-old businessman, Paul Mbadugha, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja after he tested positive for ingesting cocaine.

Mbadugha was apprehended during the outward clearance for a Qatar Airways flight to Hanoi, Vietnam, on August 12, 2024, and later excreted 88 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.710 kilograms over four days.

According to NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, Mbadugha admitted that he had been given the drugs by a Lagos-based businessman for a fee of $2,000.

Babafemi added that the NDLEA had also intercepted a shipment of 800 grams of “Loud,” a synthetic strain of cannabis, hidden in noodles at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, destined for Congo.

A follow-up operation led to the arrest of Nnamani Sunday Sunny, the sender of the consignment, at Alaba International Market, Lagos.

In a related operation, anti-narcotic officers at Lagos Airport recovered 65.80 kilograms of “Loud” imported from Canada.

A suspect, Desalu Taophic Temitope, was arrested after arriving on an Air France flight with six suitcases, four of which contained the illicit substance. Desalu confessed that he and an accomplice were promised $10,000 for successfully delivering the shipment.

The NDLEA also reported significant seizures in Rivers State, where operatives, in collaboration with the Nigeria Customs and other port stakeholders, recovered 892,400 bottles of codeine-based syrup worth N6.24 billion from five containers at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex.

The bottles, shipped from India, were packed in 5,337 cartons weighing 133,860 kilograms.

Additional operations across the country included:

• The destruction of 21,800 kilograms of cannabis sativa in Ekiti State, found on 20 hectares of farmland at the Ise forest reserve.
• The interception of 200.2 kilograms of cannabis on the Onitsha-Enugu road in Enugu, leading to the arrest of driver Okoro Emmanuel, 41.
• The arrest of two suspects in Kano, Joseph Apeh and Diamond Nnabuike, with 145,400 pills of tramadol.
• In Ogun State, the arrest of 70-year-old Fidelis Egede and three others for cultivating cannabis on six hectares in Alaka village.
• In Abuja, the recovery of 30,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection from a truck on the Kwali-Gwagwalada Expressway.
• The arrest of Ifeanyi Chukwueze in Niger State with 28,500 tramadol pills concealed in a loudspeaker, and Abba Yakubu in Kogi State with 40,000 pills of the opioid.

The NDLEA continues its crackdown on drug trafficking, with Babafemi urging citizens to support the agency’s efforts to curb the menace of illicit drug activities in Nigeria.