OPERATIVES of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted a shipment of cocaine concealed in 20 sets of religious books heading to Saudi Arabia.
The agency, in a statement on Sunday, April 20, by its spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said the consignment, consisting of 20 parcels with a total weight of 500 grammes, was buried in the pages of the religious books.
He said the drugs were uncovered at a courier company in Lagos on Tuesday, April 15, when NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) were searching through export cargos going to Saudi Arabia at the logistics firm.
It added that at another courier company, same day, NDLEA officers intercepted five parcels of loud, a strong strain of cannabis weighing 2.8 kilogrammes, hidden in a carton coming from the United States.
In Kano, a 22-year-old alleged supplier of illicit substances to bandits, Muhammad Mohammed, was arrested by the NDLEA operatives on patrol along Bichi-Kano road while heading to Katsina with 277 ampoules of pentazocine injection tied to his thigh and private part with sellotape.
He was intercepted on Sunday, April 13, while another suspect, Mohammed Abdulrahman Abdulaziz, 43, was nabbed same day at Research Rimin Kebe area of Nasarawa, Kano, with 68 blocks of skunk, a strain of cannabis, weighing 30kg.
In another development, the agency said not less than 557.2kg of skunk, 5.6kg of methamphetamine and 29.8 grammes of heroin were recovered from a house along Major General Isaiah Alllison Street, Opolo, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, where four suspects were arrested when NDLEA operatives raided the premises on Wednesday, April 16.
The four suspects arrested during the raid include: Sarimiye Suwa Kurtis, 46; Roland Prosper, 34; Sarimiye Tare Paul, 45; and Fidelis Ugbesla, 46.
In Kebbi, NDLEA operatives on patrol along Bagudo road on Friday, April 18, intercepted a vehicle loaded with bags of charcoal coming from Malabil, Benin Republic.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance