Anti-narcotic Agency arrests 2 Pakistani businessmen for cocaine trafficking

Nigeria’s Anti-narcotic Agency, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has arrested two Pakistani businessmen at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos with 8 kilograms of cocaine concealed in a public address system while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Lahole, Pakistan via Doha.

The two suspects: Asif Muhammed, 45 and Hussain Naveed, 57, who hold Nigerian residence permits suspected to be fake, are frequent travellers to the country under the guise of doing textile business.

In a statement issued by the agency’s Spokesperson, Mr Femi BabaFemi, he explained that the suspects were arrested on Saturday 5th November at the Lagos airport barely a week after they came to Nigeria.

Also, operatives at the airport on Friday 4th November seized 13 cartons of Tramadol 225mg and 200mg imported from Karachi, Pakistan.

Meanwhile, two businessmen who have been on the run for months over their involvement in drug trafficking have been arrested by anti-narcotic officers assigned to track them.

Another drug trafficker, Nnebo Ikechukwu Christopher who has been wanted for his role in the importation of 40 cartons containing 346,800 pills of co-codamol, a brand of paracetamol with Codeine seized at the cargo wing of the MMIA local airport since March 2022, was arrested on Thursday 3rd November.

Operatives on the trail of an automobile parts dealer, Omeje Oliver since April eventually arrested him on Monday 31st October in Enugu where he fled to after abandoning his business at Aspanda, Trade Fair Complex Lagos.

“In Katsina state, operatives on patrol at Malumfashi-Zaria road, arrested a blind man, Bukar Haruna, 52, and his son Saka Haruna, 30 while heading to Niger republic with 20.5kg cannabis and 10 grams of exol-5.

“Also, about 2, 685.5kgs of cannabis were recovered in four different operations conducted in parts of Edo state in the last week. 

“Operatives on Thursday 3rd Nov stormed the Egbeta forest in Ovia North East where they recovered 112 bags of cannabis and 8 bags of seeds with a combined weight of 1,598.5kgs, while another team evacuated 27 bags of same substance weighing 314kgs at Amahor village in Igueben LGA.

“In Mubi area of Adamawa, “operatives on Tuesday 1st Nov. intercepted a Toyota Corolla car transporting 9,600 pills of tramadol.  

“A follow-up operation later led to the arrest of the owner of the consignment, Mamuda Ramadan, (a.k.a Muller), while another suspect, Alhassan Muhammed, was arrested on Sunday 30th October along Abuja-Kaduna express road, with 136,000 pills of tramadol concealed inside his car’s spare tyre.”

While commending the officers and men of the affected commands of the Agency for the successful operations in the past week, the Chief Executive of NDLEA, Mohamed Buba Marwa, urged operatives across the country not to rest on their oars until all drug syndicates operating in Nigeria are completely dismantled.

PIAK