NDLEA Detains Two Wanted Drug Barons, Arrests Others For Ingesting 175 Wraps Of Heroin; Detains Couple With 27.566 kilograms of Methamphetamine

By Akeem Oduyoye

After weeks of intelligence-led operations across the country and outside Nigeria, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have arrested two wanted heads of transnational criminal organisations with multi-billion-naira worth of illicit drugs and assets seized from them.

According to NDLEA, the arrest of the wanted drug lords came on the heels of the interception of consignments of cocaine and heroin buried in the bellies of two traffickers heading to Paris, France, and Doha, Qatar, by NDLEA officers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja.

The NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, confirmed the development through a statement issued on Sunday.

According to Babafemi, the agency’s operatives at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos, on Tuesday took into custody, Hakeem Babatunde Salami, the arrowhead of “Tajudeen Babatunde Abioye Transnational Criminal Organization” involved in the illicit trade of several narcotics including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and ephedrine between Nigeria, Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, and Europe.

According to the NDLEA, Salami fled Nigeria to South Africa upon the arrest of a member of his syndicate, Suleiman Babatunde Oba, at the Lagos airport on August 25 over attempt to export 25.10kgs of ephedrine to South Africa.

However, Salami was smoked out of hiding through partnership with South African authorities and other intelligence and investigative mechanisms, with some of his luxury vehicles seized, including his home in Surulere, Lagos.

Salami joined other members of his cartel, Suleiman and Godwin Edet Mathew, who were already in the custody of the NDLEA .

In a related operation, the anti-narcotic agency claimed that the head of another cartel, Okafor Ikechukwu Williams (aka Jantu), and his wife, Okafor Ifeyinwa Grace, were also taken into custody on Thursday 5th October when operatives raided their hideout at 9 Awa Street, Ago Palace, Okota area of Lagos, where they recovered 27.566 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed in a blue box and two sacks, ready for export to Europe and Asia, with their Lexus RX350 marked ABJ 512 AY also seized during the operation.