A Spain-based businessman, 50-year-old Francis Akajiobi, has been arrested by the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the departure hall of terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in the Ikeja area of Lagos State after parcels of cocaine weighing 1.20 kilograms were discovered in his pair of sandals while attempting to board his Royal Air Maroc flight to Madrid, Spain.

The two parcels of cocaine were concealed in the soles of a pair of black sandals Akajiobi was wearing to board his flight when NDLEA operatives intercepted him on Thursday, July 25, 2024.

The spokesperson for the anti-drug agency, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this via a statement on Sunday, July 28.

Babafemi stated that Akajiobi, during his preliminary interview, claimed the cocaine was delivered to him at a bar in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, and was to deliver it to his friend and neighbour in Spain for 5,000 euros upon successful delivery to the recipient.

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He added that a suspect, Makinde Sodiq Lekan, was arrested in connection with the seizure of 99 parcels of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 51.60kg that arrived the SAHCO Imports shed of the Lagos airport on a Turkish Airlines flight from Canada via Istanbul, Turkey.

The NDLEA spokesman disclosed that the operatives of a Special Operations Unit targeting syndicates, who specialise in shipping large consignments of opioids into neighbouring countries from where they attempt smuggling them into Nigeria in smaller quantities through transport companies, have arrested one of the kingpins, Chukwuemaka Obodozie.

Babafemi said the suspect was arrested in the early hours of Sunday, July 21, at Cele bus stop along Oshodi-Apapa expressway in Lagos with 100,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg loaded in two bags shortly after his arrival from Ghana via one of the transport companies plying the Lagos-Ghana route.

Babafemi revealed that the operation followed five months of surveillance around Chukwuemeka.

Commending the anti-narcotic officers for the arrests and seizures, the NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), applauded their pulverising onslaught against drug cartels across the country.

Marwa also expressed delight in the balance of their drug supply reduction efforts with drug demand reduction activities just as he urged them not to rest on their oars.

The Star