The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has confirmed the arrest of a 40-year-old wanted drug kingpin, Yussuf Abayomi Azeez.
According to the agency, Azeez was apprehended by operatives of its Special Operations Unit at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, while attempting to travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah. His arrest followed months of intensive intelligence gathering and surveillance on his illicit drug activities.
The development was disclosed in a statement on Sunday by Femi Babafemi, Director of Media and Advocacy at the NDLEA headquarters in Abuja.
According to the statement, the drug kingpin had been arrested and charged for drug offences in the United Kingdom but jumped bail and escaped to Nigeria.
The suspect was alleged to have set up a massive clandestine laboratory in the Lekki area of the state for the production of Colorado, a deadly synthetic cannabis and other illicit substances soon after settling down in Lagos.
Babafemi disclosed that at the time of his arrest, Yussuf was found in company of another suspect, 43-year-old Abideen Kekere-Ekun.
Inside the massive building, operatives from the Agency’s Directorate of Forensic and Chemical Monitoring were able to dismantle all installed laboratory equipment, precursor chemicals and already produced illicit substances including Colorado, all weighing 148.3 kilograms.
At the Sifax bonded terminal in Okota, Lagos, NDLEA operatives in conjunction with men of Customs Service and other security agencies on Friday 7th November discovered 105.5kg Molly, a designers drug and 500grams of methamphetamine during a joint examination of
a shipment.
