Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have busted a drug syndicate allegedly using Hajj pilgrims as cocaine couriers to Saudi Arabia.
According to the NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi, three key suspects have been arrested in Kano State, while multiple drug seizures and arrests were recorded across Nigeria this past week.
The NDLEA’s operation began at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, where two intending pilgrims — Ibrahim Umar Mustapha and Muhammad Siraj Shifado — were arrested during the final screening before boarding an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Following a body scan and a period of excretion observation, the duo excreted a total of 90 wraps of Cocaine — weighing 1.04 kilograms.
Investigations quickly led NDLEA Operatives to three alleged kingpins in Kano — Abubakar Muhammad, Abdulhakeem Muhammed Tijjani, and Muhammad Aji Shugaba — arrested on the 27th and 28th of May.
In a related Operation on May 28, a 60-year-old businessman, Chinedu Leonard Okigbo, was arrested at Kano Airport en route to Iran. He had ingested 65 wraps of Cocaine, weighing 1.41 kilograms.
Meanwhile, at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex in Rivers State, NDLEA, Customs, and other Agencies intercepted seven Containers. Inside — a staggering haul of over 825,000 bottles of Codeine-based Syrup and more than 5 million Opioid Pills including Tapentadol.
The estimated street value of the seizures? Over N9.3 billion naira.
Back in Kano, on May 30, Operatives on the Kano–Maiduguri road intercepted two men with $900,000 in cash suspected to be counterfeit. The suspects have been handed over for further investigation.
In Adamawa, 390 blocks of Compressed Skunk weighing over 275 Kilograms were seized from an abandoned vehicle. And in Ilorin, Kwara State, a notorious female dealer, Alhaja Mutiat Abdul-Fatai, was arrested with various opioids at Oja Oba market.
(Editor: Nkoli Omhoudu)
