NDLEA captures drugs disguised in shoes, wooden drum
By Zuleihat Owuiye, Mamos Nigeria
A 29-year-old South African medication dealer, Erasmus Jean-Pierre, has been captured in Nigeria for endeavoring to send out 2.6kg of methamphetamine disguised in his baggage to Center East Asia through Nigeria.
The transnational cartel’s attempts to ship drugs to Indonesia concealed in a pair of male slippers and a wooden drum were thwarted by NDEA agents at the same time.
The representative for the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, unveiled these in a press proclamation on Sunday.
Babafemi says that Jean-Pierre’s plan was foiled by people who caught him and found the illegal drug at Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on August 23, 2023, while Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 404 was clearing passengers to fly to the Middle East via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“The white powdery illicit substance factory was discovered packed in various parts of his luggage after a thorough search. Fundamental examination uncovered that the suspect showed up in Lagos through Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on Saturday, August 19, came to Abuja on Tuesday, August 22, and claimed the earthy colored sack containing the medication transfer on Wednesday, August 23, preceding making a beeline for the Abuja air terminal for his trip out of Nigeria,” Babafmi said.
“Efforts by transnational drug cartels to move a consignment of 117 grams of ketamine neatly concealed in a pair of leather male slippers being shipped to Indonesia and 2.14kg of skunk clinically hidden in the walls of a local wooden drum were equally frustrated by NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, DOGI, attached to courier firms in Lagos,” the NDLEA spokesman stated regarding the transnational drug cartels.
He added that NDLEA officials in Gombe State while on the lookout along Darazo Street on Monday, August 21, recuperated a neglected Volkswagen Sharon with number plate GME 76 XD containing 373,420 pills of narcotics including tramadol and diazepam.
In a similar vein, he claimed that on Wednesday, August 23, authorities in Ogun State conducted a raid at the residence of a drug dealer named Ifeanyi Orji in the Ibafo region of the state, resulting in the recovery of 81,000 tablets weighing 32.4 kilograms of tramadol 225 mg.
In Adamawa State, Babafemi said NDLEA agents on Tuesday, August 22, recuperated 60,000 pills of tramadol from a suspect, Ibrahim Abba, 25, who was going in a business Toyota Diva vehicle from Kalaa town to Mubi.
In the Government Capital Region, he said agents caught two transfers of skunk with a gross load of 1, 242.1kg.
On Sunday, August 20, the first shipment, weighing 665.1 kilograms, was taken from a truck in the area of Area 3, and the second shipment, weighing 577 kilograms, was found during a stop-and-search operation that took place along the Lokoja-Abaji Expressway on the same day.
The transfer was hidden in products conveyance packs inside a compartment Mercedes truck, whose driver, Yusuf Yakubu-Asokomhe, and his colleague, Tunde Ogundare, were captured.
