The N3billion Tramadol deal involving the controversial suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari-led Intelligence Response Team, Chief Afam Mallinson Emmanuel Ukatu has been busted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
The arrest of Ukatu came after months of surveillance and evasion of arrest, according to the anti-narcotics agency. On Wednesday, April 13th, Ukatu, the Chairman of the Mallinson Group of Companies, was apprehended onboard a flight to Abuja at the MM2 terminal of the Lagos airport, Ikeja.
The NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, made the announcement in a statement titled, ‘NDLEA arrests drug baron behind N3billion Tramadol linked to Abba Kyaris team’, released on Monday.
According to Babafemi, the suspect is a significant importer of large consignments of various brands of Tramadol Hydrochloride at high dosages.
Tramadol doses of 120mg, 200mg, 225mg, and 250mg, according to him, are illegal. Ukatu also owned pharmaceutical and plastic manufacturing enterprises, which he used as a front to bring illegal substances into Nigeria, according to him.
The statement read, “This is in addition to operating 103 bank accounts, most of which are used to launder money.
“Ukatu came under watch last year after five cartons of Tramadol 225mg were seized from his staff on 4th May 2021 when he sent them to sell to undercover police officers (unknown to Ukatu) from the then Kyari-led IRT of the Nigeria Police, Ikeja Lagos. The price of a carton of Tramadol was negotiated at N17million each as against the then black market value that ranged between N18million and N20million a carton in Lagos.
“After the arrest of Ukatu’s staff: Pius Enidom and Sunday Ibekwete, Kyari’s men were then led by the suspects to Mallinson’s warehouse at Ojota in Lagos where 197 additional Cartons of Tramadol 225mg were seized by the IRT Team. The monetary value of the 202 cartons of Tramadol seized from Mallinson in one day was over N3billion.
“Three weeks after the seizure, the Kyari’s IRT team transferred only 12 Cartons of the Tramadol with one truck and a suspect to the Lagos Command of the NDLEA, leaving 190 cartons unaccounted for.
“After over eight months of following the lead, anti-narcotic officers of the Agency eventually arrested Ukatu at the Lagos airport on 13th April 2022. Kyari and four top members of his team are already facing trial for a different but similar offence at a Federal High Court in Abuja.”
