The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted and seized 8,852 kg of Canadian Loud, an imported synthetic cannabis strain, at Eleko Road in Lekki, Lagos State.
The agency’s director of media advocacy, Femi Babafemi, said this in a statement released on Sunday.
He stated that the agency’s officers engaged in a gunfight with armed persons who were escorting the illegal substance for about 30 minutes before making the seizure.
Babafemi said the agency carried out espionage, and on Thursday, he ambushed a trafficker who was transporting two pickups loaded onto his truck.
According to Babafemi,
When the suspects who armed men escorted were flagged down, rather than stop, they escaped and abandoned the drugs. But they were later overpowered by the operatives in an exchange of gunfire that lasted 30 minutes.
While one of the trucks painted red has 149 jumbo bags weighing 6,548kg, the second one with blue colour has 53 big bags with a weight of 2,304kg, bringing the total number of bags to 202 and gross weight of both to 8,852kg. Meanwhile, operatives are already on the trail of the drug lord who shipped the illicit consignment into the country.
Babafemi stated that NDLEA officers intercepted a Toyota Sienna vehicle driven by one Mukaila Idowu, containing 88.3kg of skunk at the Otedola Bridge in Lagos on the same day. Additionally, the officers arrested another suspect, Joseph Friday, on Saturday at lyana Ira in Lagos, who had 58.7kg of cannabis sativa hidden inside his Toyota Camry car with number plate FST 587FH.
Meanwhile, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, attached to courier firms, intercepted blocks of compressed brown methamphetamine packaged as soap bars weighing 1.54kg going to Australia.
The seizure at a courier house in Lagos on Tuesday, May 2, was a follow-up operation to an earlier interception of 3.389kg of the same substance on February 23, 2023. A suspected drug courier, Paul Adetigbe, who delivered the previous parcel, was eventually arrested with the latest consignment.
cc: Punch Ng
