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Cracks fireproof safe in Rivers drug den
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted consignments of captagon, known as the “Jihadi drug”, and millions of opioid pills worth over N6.2 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, in a week of operations that also saw a fireproof safe cracked open in a Rivers State drug den.
The captagon haul was seized on Saturday, August 22, following the arrest of Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, 49, a cross-border kingpin who arrived from Accra, Ghana, aboard an African World Airlines flight.
A search of his carton of local bathing soap, popularly called “Ghana Soap”, led to the recovery of 47,200 pills of the amphetamine drug, concealed within the soap blocks and worth over N1.5 billion.
Aikins told operatives he was meant to deliver the consignment in northern Nigeria.
Captagon, used to fund extremist activities in conflict zones, was first intercepted in Nigeria by the NDLEA in September 2021 at Apapa Port, Lagos.
In a separate operation at the same airport, operatives recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg, with a combined weight of 2,787.40 kilograms and street value exceeding N4.6 billion, from four abandoned consignments at the MMIA import shed.
Three consignments, comprising 900,000 Tramaking tablets, arrived via RwandAir from Bangladesh; the fourth, comprising 3,000,030 Tapentadol tablets, arrived via Qatar Airways from Amsterdam.
The shipments had been under surveillance after no one came forward to claim them, and were retrieved on Friday, August 28, following a joint examination by NDLEA and Customs officials.
Separately, a US returnee, Sowunmi David Oludotun, 31, was arrested on August 19 at Ikate, Lekki, while attempting to take delivery of 3.35 kilograms of “Loud”, a synthetic cannabis strain imported from the United Kingdom.
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Fireproof safe cracked open in Rivers
In Port Harcourt, operatives raided the Abuja Down/Up area and recovered a fireproof iron safe, which was cracked open with a welding machine on Tuesday, August 25. It yielded 237 grams of colorado, 316 grams of cocaine and 10 grams of heroin.
In Ondo State, three suspects, Oyedele Daniel, 42, Taye Saliu, 36, and Kehinde Saliu, 36, were arrested on August 28 along the Ipele-Idoani Road with 728 kilograms of skunk found in their truck.
Two other suspects, Uche Joseph, 35, and Godwin Umeh, 21, were arrested with 341 kilograms of the same substance at Aponmu Forest on August 26.
In Delta State, over 176,000 pills of assorted opioids, including tramadol and molly, were recovered in two separate operations between August 26 and 28.
Alongside enforcement, NDLEA commands nationwide continued War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities, including lectures at schools and worship centres in Gombe and Kano, an adolescent lifestyle programme with NNPCL in Benin City, and advocacy visits to the governors of Ondo and Taraba states.
NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (rtd), commended the MMIA, Ondo and Delta commands and directed officers to sustain pressure on traffickers “desperate to explore every means, including concealment in everyday household items like soap,” to move illicit consignments.
