On New Year’s Day, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) intercepted a shipment of Colorado, a potent strain of cannabis, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. The consignment was hidden in boxing kits that were imported from the United States.
The NDLEA conducted a weeklong operation to gather intelligence and apprehend the receiver of the drugs, which led to the arrest of a 38-year-old man named Olorunfunmi Saheed Olakunle on January 6th. Saheed was responsible for distributing the dangerous substance to dealers in Lagos. The shipment, weighing 1.80 kilograms, arrived in the country on January 1st via Cairo on an Egypt Airlines flight.
Saheed admitted that he delivers such consignments to various recipients whenever his childhood friend, Sagir Salami, based in the US, sends them. In a separate operation, the NDLEA also arrested twelve other suspects, including a 28-year-old woman named Bilkisu Suleman, who was involved in supplying ammunition to bandits. These arrests were made in interdiction operations carried out in Kaduna, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun states.
Bilkisu was apprehended on Wednesday 3rd January by officers from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) who were on patrol along the Zaria Kano expressway. She was found in possession of 249 rounds of 7.62 mm live ammunition, which were concealed in a black nylon bag inside her handbag. It was discovered that she was en route to deliver the ammunition to a known bandit in Kakumi village, Katsina state. Following her arrest, she was transferred to the Kaduna state command of the Nigeria Police Force for further investigation.
On Tuesday 2nd January, the military authorities at the Bonny camp cantonment in Lagos transferred a suspect named Francis Suru, aged 37, along with 63 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud, a strain of cannabis. The total weight of the cannabis was 2,104.2 kilograms, and it was transported in a truck. The suspect and the drug exhibits were initially intercepted by NDLEA officers on 12th December 2023 near the entrance of the military cantonment in Bonny Camp, Victoria Island. During the operation, some armed escorts attempted to obstruct the interception by resorting to sporadic shooting. This attracted the attention of soldiers from the cantonment, who intervened and took custody of the suspect and the consignment before transferring them to the NDLEA.
Similarly, on Thursday 5th January, NDLEA operatives in Niger state conducted a stop and search operation along the Suleja-Kaduna road. They intercepted a J5 bus traveling from Ondo state to Zaria, Kaduna state. The bus was found to be carrying twenty-three (23) bags of cannabis sativa, with a total weight of 219.5kg. Two suspects, Umar Musa (26) and Isachiru Abubakar, were arrested in connection with the seizure.
In separate incidents, a female drug trafficker named Queen Onyema (27) was arrested on Saturday 6th January in a commercial bus traveling to Abuja along the Okene-Lokoja expressway. She was found in possession of 12 compressed blocks of cannabis weighing 4.6kg and 0.046kg of designer drugs, which were concealed in an indomie carton. Additionally, another suspect named Mubarak Sani (20) was apprehended in the Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano on Monday 1st January. He was found with 445
