Anti-narcotic Agency destroys 317 tonnes cannabis, arrests suspects in Edo state

Operatives of Nigeria’s Anti-narcotic Agency, the National Drugs Laws Enforcement Agency NDLEA have destroyed over three hundred thousand kilograms of psychoactive substance also called cannabis in warehouses at Opuje forests in Edo state Southern Nigeria.

Three suspects and a police impersonator were apprehended in connection with the drugs.

The NDLEA’S spokesperson Mr Femi Babafemi in a press statement said “the Opuje community in Owan West Local Government Area, Edo State, is notorious for cannabis cultivation, where the cartels invest huge resources, cutting down economic trees of the forest reserves and cultivating cannabis on a large scale, running into hundreds of hectares”.

Babafemi explained that it took the NDLEA operatives hours of trekking in accessing the forest and ambush to apprehend the suspects.

Fake currency syndicate 

In another development, the NDLEA busted a criminal syndicate involved in the trafficking of fake USD currency in Lagos through intelligence received from the Drug Enforcement Administration of the United States on Thursday 19th January.

The agency in a combined operation with their EFCC counterparts, recovered a total of $269,000 counterfeit US dollars from the syndicate at Oniru Shoprite area of Lekki, Lagos, where three suspects were arrested.

The Chief Executive NDLEA Retired Brig. General Mohammed Bubba Marwa while commending all the officers involved in the two special operations in Edo and Lagos for their professionalism and commitment, directed that the fake dollars recovered and suspects arrested in the Lekki operation be immediately transferred to the EFCC for possible prosecution.

Emmanuel Ukoh