In separate interdictions across three states, Nigeria’s anti-narcotics body NDLEA arrested three suspected traffickers with a total of 256 kilogrammes of illicit substances.

The drug peddlers were busted in Kwara, Kogi and Niger, according to NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi.

Nineteen-year-old Idris Saeed was intercepted by a team of NDLEA officers on stop and search duty along Ilorin-Jebba highway on December 26.  The suspect was conveying 60 blocks of compressed cannabis sativa, weighing 30kg.

Operatives in Niger on a similar operation along Jebba-Mokwa road also recovered 240 blocks of the same substance weighing 168 kilogrammes.

Mr Babafemi said that the multi-colour sacks of the substance were loaded in a Peugeot J5 bus, with registration number MAG 146 XA, from Lagos going for delivery in Kano.

“In Kogi, operatives intercepted a truck coming from Onitsha, Anambra state to Maiduguri, Borno along Okene-Abuja highway where 9,900 ampoules of pentazocine injection (42kgs) were recovered on Sat. Dec. 24,” he said.

Another suspect, Ibrahim Jibril, 20, was arrested on the same route with 40 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 16kgs coming from Lagos to Jigawa in a Toyota Hiace commercial bus on December 27.

NDLEA chairman Buba Marwa commended operatives in the respective commands for the arrests and seizures. He urged them to step up offensive action against drug cartels in 2023, with equal focus on drug demand reduction efforts. 

(NAN)