Another Lagos cartel is busted by NDLEA, and N5 billion worth of drugs are taken

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested a second Tramadol cartel that was active in Lagos State over the weekend.

The agency apprehended two of the kingpins and seized millions of opioid tablets and bottles valued at over N5 billion from a warehouse in Amuwo Odofin.

Operatives tracked down and found the pharmacy business at 17 Sir Ben Onyeka Street, which is off Ago Palace Way. Aloysius Okeke, the owner, was detained.

The drugs found include 915,000 capsules of pregabalin 300 mg, 3,264,630 tramadol pills, and 3,490 bottles of codeine.

Olarenwaju Lawal Wahab, a suspect who is a distributor for the cartel, was caught before the bust.

14,690 bottles of codeine-based syrup, 402 tablets of 500 Tramadol 250 mg pills, 50,000 Tramadol 225 mg tablets, and 210,000 pregabalin 300 mg capsules were found in his delivery van.

READ ALSO: In Lagos, the NDLEA discovers 61 kg of cannabis hidden in car parts

However, on January 10, agents stopped a consignment of Loud, a potent variety of cannabis, that was being imported and weighing 4,878 kilogrammes along Awolowo Road in Ikoyi.

After a close call with fictitious security guards escorting the drugs, according to NDLEA Head of Media Femi Babafemi, agents recovered the shipment being transported in a white truck with the licence plate BDG 548 XX.

After the interception, police in the Idumota area arrested a dealer named Charles Okeke and took 121,630 pills of prescription opioids and a small amount of Molly from him.

But on Saturday, the NDLEA found a secret lab in a rural area of Sagamu, Ogun State, and took it apart.

Skunkies, an extremely potent psychoactive chemical generated with a combination of Cannabis sativa, Tramadol, Rohypnol, Exol-5, and industrial codeine, were created in the lab.

The tools used to make the deadly new psychoactive substance and different amounts of illegal drugs were found.