The Delta State police command on Tuesday raised the alarm over the trend of dispatch riders being used to distribute hard drugs for barons.

The state police spokesperson, Bright Edafe, stated this while displaying cache of cannabis seized from dispatch riders in a video posted on X.

Mr Edafe said, “Our intelligence report uncovered the fact that some dispatch riders in the guise of running a courier now transport hard drugs and cannabis.’’

The Delta police spokesperson also highlighted a trend of young ladies between age 20 and 25 lodging in hotels to sell drugs, while using dispatch riders to move their drugs around the city.

Mr Edafe said, “We also arrested some young girls aged between 20 and 25 years who lodged in a hotel for months and used the hotel as a place to hibernate and sell drugs to their customers. They use these dispatch riders to move their drugs from one point to another and sell them at the hotel too.’’

A former police spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, deployed to Delta State as Deputy Commissioner of Police, lauded the arrests in a posted on X.

“Good work,” Mr Adejobi said. “The command will clamp down on them. Delta must know peace, Nigeria must know peace.”

In July, the Nigerian Postal Service had also raised the alarm over the activities of courier operators transporting illegal weapons and illicit drugs across the country.