Officers of the Special Operation Unit of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have taken down a cartel controlled by a drug baron, 49-year-old Kelechi Monday Nwaobasi and his 50-year-old elder sister, Ms Chinwe Rose Nwaobasi, which housed cocaine and methamphetamine consignments worth over N4.1billion in street value from their hideout in Aba, Abia state.
According to a statement by the Director, of Media & Advocacy, Femi Babafemi the special operation conducted on Thursday 13th and Friday 14th June 2024 at 3B, Boundary Avenue, Aba and a residence along Ohia Road, Ohia, Abia State followed months of intelligence gathering, led to the arrest of the ring leaders and the combined seizure of 20.76 kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine from them.
In a related development, NDLEA operatives in Lagos state also uncovered an expansive warehouse stocked with a large consignment of codeine-based syrup, located at Comfort Oboh area of Kirikiri, where four persons connected with the importation and distribution of the opioid were arrested during an intelligence-led raid on the facility.
Those arrested include: Kingsley Amanambu Obumneke, 38; Emeka Emmanuel, 48; Bonaventure Ugochukwu, 59; and Martin Dike, 56, while a total of 82,000 bottles of the opioid worth more than N600million in street value, Toyota Tacuma truck and two buses used for distributing the substance were recovered from the premises on Monday 10th June 2024 when NDLEA officers conducted the operation. Two days after, Wednesday 12th June, operatives intercepted another suspect, Ibrahim Abdulhamid with 29,100 pills of tramadol and other opioids as well as 3.9 litres of codeine syrup at Alaba Suru, Ojo local council area of the state.
A total of 230,600 pills of tramadol 225mg and 200mg were also recovered from the duo of Yasir Rabi’u, 23, and Abubakar Ado, 30, who are major distributors of illicit drugs in Kano and Jigawa states, when they were arrested on Monday 10th June at Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano. In the same vein, another suspect, Hassan Abdullahi Ali, 25, was nabbed with 150 bottles of codeine syrup at the Kofar Nassarawa area of Kano on Tuesday 11th June.
