Crime
NDLEA seizes N5 billion aploids in Lagos Warehouse, arrests two kingpins
NDLEA seizes N5 billion aploids in Lagos Warehouse, arrests two kingpins
By Michael Mike
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the weekend busted a warehouse in Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos belonging to a tramadol cartel, arresting two of its kingpins, seizing millions of opioids pills and bottles worth over N5 billion.
This is even as anti-narcotics officers of the agency also uncovered and dismantled a clandestine skuchies laboratory in a remote part of Sagamu, Ogun state where several equipment and various quantities of illicit substances used to mass produce the dangerous new psychoactive substance were recovered on Saturday.
In a statement on Sunday, the spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi said the drug cartels took the first heat last Tuesday from determined officers of the agency who intercepted an imported consignment of Loud, a strong variant of cannabis, weighing 4,878.72 kilogrammes along Awolowo road Ikoyi, Lagos, adding that after a near fatal encounter with some suspected fake security agents escorting the drugs, the NDLEA operatives succeeded in recovering the consignment with a white truck marked BDG 548 XX conveying it.
He said this was followed by the seizure of 121,630 pills of pharmaceutical opioids and some quantity of molly from a dealer, Charles Okeke last Wednesday at Idumota area of Lagos Island, revealing that another effort by the agency to bring the drug cartels to their kneels paid off last Friday when operatives tracked and located a major warehouse for pharmaceutical opioids at 17, Sir Ben Onyeka street, off Ago palace way in Amuwo Odofin area of the state while the owner of the store, Aloysius Okeke was arrested.
He disclosed that illicit drugs recovered from the warehouse include: 3,264,630 pills of tramadol; 3,490 bottles of codeine and 915,000 capsules of pregabalin 300mg.
Babafemi noted that this came on the heels of the arrest of a suspect, Olarenwaju Wahab who distributes for the cartel same day, disclosing that recovered from his white Mercedes distribution bus include: 14,690 bottles of codeine-based syrup; 402, 500 tablets of tramadol 250mg; 50,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg and 210,000 capsules of pregabalin 300mg.
The spokesman also disclosed that in neighbouring Ogun state, operatives in the early hours of Saturday also discovered and dismantled a clandestine laboratory on the outskirts of Sagamu from where skuchies, a highly potent psychoactive substance made with a blend of cannabis sativa, tramadol, rohypnol, Exol-5 and industrial codeine, was being produced in large quantity, packaged and distributed in jerry cans and bottles.
He said all the equipment for the production including power generators, industrial gas cylinders, drums and kegs as well as various quantities of illicit drugs such as 214 kilogrammes cannabis; 1,440 capsules of tramadol; 480 tablets of swinol; 1,440 tablets of rophpnol and 114 litres of industrial codeine, among others were recovered from the building before sealing off the premises.
Babafemi said in Abuja, operatives of the FCT Command of the agency last Thursday raided the notorious Tora bora hills in the city and recovered 350.7 kilogrammes of skunk and 794 bottles of codeine hidden under rocks, adding that 756 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa were recovered at Dawo village, Kaga local government area of Borno State and transferred to the agency last Friday by officers of the Nigerian Army, FOB 29 Task Force Brigade, Benishiekh, in conjunction with hunters group, based on intelligence from the State Command of NDLEA.
In Ondo state, operatives stormed Alayere, Akure North local government area, where they arrested a suspect, Sunday Make with 275 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa and seeds, while a total of 272 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa were recovered from two suspects: Nwele Friday, 35, and Egbe Nnaemeka, 47 at Ifo layout, Abakpa Nike, Enugu; while in Katsina, 34.3 kilogrammes of cannabis were also recovered from an uncompleted building in Muduru, Mani village after which the owner, Murtala Isiya was arrested in a follow up operation.
In the same vein, an alleged notorious drug dealer, who is physically challenged, Abiodun Emaria, 40, was last Saturday arrested with 6.2 kilogrammes of cannabis at his hideout in Ohada village, Uhunmonde local government area of Edo state.
Meanwhile, the Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd) while commending the officers and men of Lagos, FCT, Ondo, Enugu, Borno, Katsina and Edo Commands for the arrests and seizures, charged them and their compatriots across the country to sustain the heat on drug cartels in Nigeria while balancing their efforts on supply reduction with drug demand reduction activities.
NDLEA seizes N5 billion aploids in Lagos Warehouse, arrests two kingpins
Escalated ISWAP/Boko Haram Clashes Claim Over 100 Fighters
By: Zagazola Makama
Fierce rivalry clashes between Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) terror groups escalated in the Lake Chad Basin over the last one week, claiming over 100 of the fighters of both groups.
From April 18 to April 24, the clashes between Boko Haram factions and ISWAP flared up across the riverine islands of the Tumbums, with the ISWAP gaining more footholds and dislodging the Boko Haram rival factions.
Shortly after ISWAP received a fresh consignment of weapons from Mali, through Niger to Dogon Chukwu Kangarwa, it declared a renewed war, issuing a stern directive to its fighters to completely exterminate the members of the JAS Buduma Boko Haram factions on April 18.
Prior to the clashes, Boko Haram JAS has moved several fighters from upper parts of the riverine Niger to take defensive positions in Kukawa in Borno, while another sets of armed fighters were moved to the Nigeria- Cameroon borders, occupying Dawashi, Dabar Wanzam, Kiri Bulla in Kukawa as well as Lokobili and Kandahar in Cameroon.
On its parts, ISWAP mounted on 20 water vessels, conveying 130 fighters to Doron Kirta Wulgo near Nigeria- Cameroon. More ISWAP fighters arrived from Kwalaram, while others trooped in from Ngala and Marte, in preparation for the major encounter.
The clash, which erupted on April 19, at Garin Mallam Ya’u, and Mallam Karamti when ISWAP led by Commander Akilu, led to the killing of several Boko Haram fighters.
The ISWAP elements later seized six of JAS Boko Haram’s motorcycles and destroyed them in the process.
In another encounter, JAS elements swiftly cordoned and captured about 15 ISWAP members at Tumbum Abuja. The clash however did not last long and subsided immediately after the capture of the rival counterpart.
On the same day, ISWAP fighters stormed Tumbum Allura, in Kukawa LGA and killed several Boko Haram fighters. ISWAP, however, lost a few of its fighters in the process while forcing the surviving JAS fighters to flee.
The ISWAP fighters chased the fleeing Boko Haram fighters to the axis of Kariya and Koleram in Kukawa, which led to another gun battle.
Again, the ISWAP fighters overpowered the rival group and killed scores of the Boko Haram fighters, including a top Commander, Khaid Allayi Gana.
Seventy armed JAS Boko Haram men later returned to Garin Mallam Ya’u to bury its neutralized Mujahedeens, while counting its losses and licking its wounds.
The intensified rival clashes forced about 10 Boko Haram fighters to surrender with arms to the troops of Sector 4, Multinational Joint Task Force at Nguiguimi, Diffa region, Niger Republic.
Two other fighters surrendered to troops of Sector 3, Multi National Joint Task Force(MNJTF) in Monguno.
The JAS group, led by Ibrahim Bakura Doro aka Bakaura Buduma, has remained a formidable enemy of ISWAP ever since Shekau’s death. It has repeatedly attacked ISWAP positions around the lake.
The ISWAP, on the other hand, have upscaled efforts to reclaim its position taken control by the JAS group.
Both ISWAP and JAS have lost more fighters from rival clashes with each other since 2021 than in confrontations with government security forces.
The incessant, and ever worsening, clashes between ISWAP and Boko Haram has continued to provide ampler opportunities for government security forces to seize, to craft strategies to exterminate the two rival groups and stamp out the terror scorching the Lake Chad Basin.
Escalated ISWAP/Boko Haram Clashes Claim Over 100 Fighters
NSCDC Rescues 10 Suspected Victims of Human Trafficking in Abuja
By: Michael Mike
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has intercepted in Abuja 10 suspected victims of human trafficking, purportedly being sponsored for illegal migration abroad.
The victims were accosted at Zuba motor park, Abuja, by officers of the FCT command of the NSCDC, following a tip off on their return from Minna, Niger State, where they had gone to process their International passport as directed by their sponsor.
The victims whose age bracket was between 24 and 34 years, consisted of a male and nine females, and all claimed to be indigenes of Ondo State.
It was gathered that each of them paid N80,000 to facilitate the procurement of the International passport.
According to a statement on Monday by the spokesman of the FCT Command of the NSCDC, Samuel Idoko, the intercepted persons also confessed to being promised migration abroad to undertake ready made jobs, especially in North Africa and Canada by a yet to be identified sponsor who according to them, resides in Okitipupa, Ondo state.
While handing over the 10 suspected victims to the Nigeria Agency for the prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP), the FCT Commandant, Olusola Odumosu, warned Nigerians on the dangers of illegal migration abroad.
He said: “Be careful of the types of people that are promising you a better future abroad, don’t be desperate because, some of them end up ruining your lives .
“They deceive you and collect huge sums of money from you that there are ready made jobs, whereas, you may end up in slavery or forced to be sex workers.
“If you must travel abroad, follow the right channel that’ll give you rest of mind, don’t allow somebody to seize your international passport abroad, and place you under an oath that you’ll regret.”
The Commandant further stated that, the victims were handed over to NAPTIP being the agency in charge of human trafficking to carry out further investigations and actions within the ambit of the law.
NSCDC Rescues 10 Suspected Victims of Human Trafficking in Abuja
Boko Haram slaughter 27 fishermen in Cameroon
By: Zagazola Makama
No fewer than 27 fishermen were slaughtered and 3 others abducted by the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah
lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād, Boko Haram terrorists group in the fringes of Lake Chad in the border between Cameroon- Nigeria.
It was gathered that terrorists suspected to be from the Buduma faction of Abou Ummaymah, attacked a local fishing community harboring most fishermen from Nigeria at Island Kofiya near Darak in the Republic of Cameroon.
Intelligence sources told Zagazola Makama that they asked them to lie down, tie their hands behind their backs before they started slaughtering them.
The sources said the terrorists also abducted four other fishermen after accusing them of spying for the ISWAP faction
The bodies of the fishermen were later recovered during a search and rescue operation by troops and their colleagues who received the news from victims who fled the attack scene.
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