During interdiction operations in Kwara, Kogi, and Niger, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) apprehended three traffickers and seized a total of 256 kilogrammes of illicit substances from them.
Mr Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, stated this in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja.
Babafemi said that on Dec. 26, a team of NDLEA officers on stop and search duty along Ilorin-Jebba highway arrested a suspect, Idris Saeed, 19, with 60 blocks of compressed cannabis sativa, weighing 30kg.
He added that operatives in Niger on similar operation along Jebba-Mokwa road also recovered 240 blocks of the same substance weighing 168 kikilogrammes.
Babafemi said that the multi-colour sacks of the substance was loaded in a Peugeot J5 bus, with registration number MAG 146 XA, from Lagos going for delivery in Kano.
“In Kogi, operatives intercepted a truck coming from Onitsha, Anambra state to Maiduguri, Borno along Okene-Abuja highway where 9,900 ampoules of pentazocine injection (42kgs) were recovered on Sat. Dec. 24,” he said.
The NDLEA spokesman also said that a suspect, Ibrahim Jibril, 20, was arrested on the same route with 40 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 16kgs coming from Lagos to Jigawa in a Toyota Hiace commercial bus on Dec. 27.
Babafemi quoted the Chairman, NDLEA, retired Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa as commending the officers and men of Kwara, Kogi and Niger Commands for the arrests and seizures.
Marwa urged them along with their compatriots across the country to step up offensive action against drug cartels in 2023, with equal focus on drug demand reduction efforts.