On New Year’s Day, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency agents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, confiscated a shipment of colorado, an extremely potent cannabis strain, hidden among boxing kits that were brought in from the United States.
The anti-narcotics agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, disclosed that a week-long intelligence-led operation to apprehend the receiver was completed on Saturday, January 6. This came about after Olorunfunmi Olakunle, 38, was apprehended and found guilty of distributing the psychoactive substance to dealers throughout Lagos State.
Babafemi continued, “The shipment had flown in on an Egypt Airlines flight labeled as boxing kits on Monday, January 1st, via Cairo. Olakunle claims that he distributes these shipments to various receivers on behalf of his childhood friend Sagir Salami, who lives in the United States. The weight of the most recent cargo is 1.80 kg overall.
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Meanwhile, Bilkisu Suleman, a 28-year-old woman who supplied ammunition to bandits, topped the list of 12 other suspects detained by NDLEA agents during the New Year’s interdiction operations in the states of Kaduna, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun. NDLEA police on patrol near the Zaria–Kano Expressway detained Bilkisu on Wednesday, January 3, after discovering 249 rounds of live 7.62 mm ammunition hidden in a black bag.
She was apprehended while traveling to Kakumi village in Katsina State to provide ammo to a known bandit. She was then taken to the Nigerian Police Force’s Kaduna State Command for additional investigation.
He went on to say that on Tuesday, January 2, the military officials at the Bonny Camp Cantonment in Lagos sent a 37-year-old suspect, Francis Suru, along with 63 large bags containing 2,104.2 kilograms of Ghanaian Loud, a cannabis strain, and a truck to the Lagos State Command of the NDLEA.
On December 12, 2023, the NDLEA agents had previously stopped the suspect and the drug exhibits near the military cantonment entrance in Bonny Camp, Victoria Island. However, some armed escorts began to disrupt the operation with intermittent gunfire. This drew attention from soldiers stationed nearby, who finally stepped in and took control of the package and suspect before handing them over to the agency, according to Babafemi.
On Thursday, January 5, while conducting a stop and search operation along the Suleja-Kaduna Road, NDLEA agents in Niger State stopped a J5 bus carrying 23 bags of 219.5 kg of cannabis sativa that was traveling from Ondo State to Zaria, Kaduna State. In relation to the seizure, Umar Musa, 26, and Isachiru Abubakar, 27, were detained as suspects.
A female drug trafficker named Queen Onyema, 27, was apprehended on Saturday, January 6, while traveling to Abuja via the Okene-Lokoja Expressway in a commercial bus. She was found in possession of 12 compressed blocks of cannabis weighing 4.6 kg and 0.046 kg of designer drugs hidden inside an Indomie carton. On Monday, January 1, Mubarak Sani, 20, was apprehended in the Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano, where 445.9 kg of the same psychoactive substance were found.
In the Pomfomari Bye-pass area of Borno State, four suspects—Zanna Alhaji Dala, 32; Musa Umar, 21; Mushe Ibrahim, 23; and Shehu Idris, 19—were apprehended in connection with 60 kg of cannabis.
Additionally, on January 1, NDLEA agents in Osun State were on patrol along the Osogbo-Ode Omu Road when they discovered a shipment of illegal drugs that had been delivered from Lagos to Osogbo via waybill. Babafemu reported that Ibrahim Olawale, 43, was apprehended following a follow-up operation. 10.974 kg of drugs, including 10.8 kg of cannabis sativa, 150 grams of loud, 19 grams of Colorado, and 5 grams of molly, were found. Additionally, a digital scale, a N18,000 cash exhibit, and specially made wrapping paper for Colorado were taken.