The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced the dismantling of two major cross-border drug trafficking syndicates.

According to the agency, six suspected drug kingpins from Adamawa, Anambra, Lagos states, and Cameroon were apprehended, with cocaine and opioids valued at billions of naira seized during the operation.

NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, revealed in a statement on Sunday that the syndicates had been under agency surveillance for months, as they were key suppliers of drugs to terrorist groups operating in Nigeria and Cameroon.

“After months of intelligence gathering and painstaking surveillance, operatives of the NDLEA have dismantled two major cross-border drug trafficking syndicates, with cocaine and opioids worth billions of naira recovered. Six leaders of the cartels were arrested in different parts of the country,” he said.

“The syndicates, which include Nigerians based in Mubi, Adamawa State; Onitsha, Anambra State; and Lagos State, as well as Cameroonians, came under the NDLEA’s radar after they were suspected of being major suppliers of drugs to terrorist groups operating in Nigeria and Cameroon.

“Leaders of the syndicates so far arrested include Ibrahim Bawuro, Najib Ibrahim, Ibrahim Umar, Nelson Anayo, Ezeh Martin, and Adejumo Ishola. Intelligence gathered revealed that some psychoactive substances, including tramadol, were often sourced by Ibrahim Bawuro and Ibrahim Najib from a notorious drug dealer in Onitsha, Nelson Udechukwu Anayo, and were then packed and concealed in vehicles at the premises of Ezeh Amaechi Martin, an associate of Udechukwu.

“The duo of Ibrahim Bawuro and Ibrahim Najib would transport the drugs from Onitsha to Yola and subsequently to other parts of the North and Cameroon in specially constructed false compartments of vehicles, which travelled from the East to the North at night.”

Babafemi noted that on October 7, Bawuro and Najib were trailed from Onitsha, where they had gone to purchase another consignment, and were arrested in Taraba the following day.

He said a total of 276,500 pills of tramadol were recovered from a Toyota Avensis saloon car marked DKA 57 TT, which they abandoned on the Jalingo-Yola expressway upon realising NDLEA operatives were on their trail.