After many years of wearing the toga of invincibility, the overall head of the Mushin, Lagos drug cartel, 57-year-old Alhaji Sulaiman Jimoh (alias Olowoidiogede, popularly known as Temo), was arrested by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) operatives at his enclave, despite initial resistance from him and his horde of hoodlums.
According to authorities, the NDLEA seized large consignments of illicit substances worth billions of naira controlled by Temo over the last two years, but he has remained mainly evasive, with a few contacts with him and his armed gangs in his Mushin enclave resulting in a gunfight.
Some of the most recent seizures of his shipments are:
A 14, 524.8 kilogrammes of Ghana Loud, a strong strain of cannabis sativa, smuggled into Lagos from Ghana in two trucks and a J5 bus intercepted at Ojuelegba area of Lagos in the early hours of Sunday 28th January 2024; two truck-loads of the same substance weighing 8,852kg intercepted at Eleko beach, Lekki Lagos on 4th May 2023; and 252kg of Loud seized from his enclave in Mushin on Wednesday 26th July 2023.
Indeed, in the previous two meetings, his men engaged NDLEA agents in gunfights.
The drug kingpin was notorious for constantly moving to avoid arrest, but the Agency’s persistence and determination, aided by modern tools and intelligence, paid off at 10 a.m. on Monday, July 22, 2024, when NDLEA surveillance teams on his trail tracked and apprehended him on Igbarere Street in Mushin.
While attempting to flee in a Mercedes Benz SUV GLE 350 bearing the registration number 01G-300G, a reinforcement of roughly 50 agents was promptly dispatched to the scene. His attempt to flee by mobilising hoodlums to engage and distract the operatives failed, and he was overpowered and whisked away from the chaotic scene, while his men surrendered to the anti-narcotic agents’ superior firepower, which also resulted in the recovery of the suspect’s Mercedes SUV.
In his reaction to Temo’s arrest, NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) praised the officers and men of the Lagos State Command, Special Monitoring Task Force, and other formations tasked with apprehending Temo for their tenacity, vigilance, and professionalism.
He asked them to turn up the heat on all drug cartels, no matter where they are located.
Marwa said:
“I’m particularly delighted because the arrest was eventually effected in his enclave without any casualty despite the attack on our men. This is therefore a clear message to others still involved in this criminal trade of illicit drugs that if they don’t opt out now, we’ll get them because we’re just steps away from their doorsteps and more importantly they can only run, they can’t hide forever”.
