NDLEA INTERCEPTS 44KG COLORADO SHIPMENT, ARRESTS SUSPECTS ACROSS NIGERIA

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have intercepted two consignments of synthetic cannabis, popularly known as Colorado, weighing 44.45kg and shipped from the United Kingdom. The seizures were made from consolidated cargoes at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, as part of a wider crackdown on illicit drug trafficking across the country.

According to the NDLEA, 27 parcels weighing 32.20kg were discovered in one of the UK consignments. A real estate agent, Abideen Jide Salami, was arrested on September 9 after allegedly arriving to collect a large luggage containing the drugs using a secret collection code reportedly sent to him by his brother based in the UK. In a separate operation, another 12.25kg consignment was intercepted, leading to the arrest of 44-year-old Nurudeen Abiodun Kadiri, who allegedly said the package had been sent by his brother in the UK.

The agency also uncovered more Colorado concealed inside music speakers at two motor parks in Lagos. At Maza-Maza motor park, operatives recovered three packs of the drug from a speaker reportedly destined for Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and eventually Liberia. A tour agent, Ifeanyi Obed Augustine, 41, and the alleged owner of the consignment, Obasi Ugochukwu, 46, were arrested during a follow-up operation. Another suspect, Ifeanyi Nwokolo Henry, was arrested at Iddo Park while allegedly attempting to send 2.1kg of Colorado to Kano.

The NDLEA said its operations also uncovered large quantities of controlled substances in several other states. In Kano, officers seized 785,000 pregabalin capsules weighing 669.425kg and recovered 1,700 diazepam tablets hidden inside loaves of bread. Other seizures included tramadol, codeine syrup, pentazocine, diazepam, flunitrazepam and MDMA in Delta and Plateau states, while large quantities of cannabis were recovered in Edo, Ondo, Kaduna and Bayelsa.

NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended the officers involved in the operations and directed them to maintain pressure on drug trafficking networks. He said the agency would continue targeting supply routes used by criminal networks at airports, seaports, land borders and within communities where illicit drugs are cultivated, stored or distributed.