National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has busted a transnational drug cartel with links in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, and United Arab Emirates.
Gatekeepers News reports that Femi Babafemi, spokesperson of the NDLEA, announced in a statement on Sunday, noting that the group was exposed following a two-week intelligence-driven operation carried out across parts of Lagos.
According to him, the breakthrough came on August 26 when officers intercepted 76 cartons of textile materials scheduled for export to Sydney, Australia, from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).
A search of the consignment revealed 17.9 kilograms of cocaine hidden in lace fabrics and padded with charms believed to provide spiritual cover against detection.
One of those linked to the consignment, a freight agent identified as Olashupo Michael Oladimeji, was immediately arrested.
Babafemi said the drugs, if successful in reaching their destination, would have fetched an estimated street value of N5.3 billion.
Follow-up operations led to the capture of two suspected leaders of the syndicate, Muaezee Ademola Ogunbiyi and Shola Adegoke, both in Lagos.
Ogunbiyi, described as the cartel’s local coordinator, was arrested on September 3 in Ikeja GRA, while a raid on his Lekki residence turned up 21 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 10.9kg, along with a pump-action rifle.
In another coordinated raid at a residence in Ikeja GRA, Adegoke was arrested. Babafemi noted that 17 parcels of cannabis weighing 9.6kg from a Range Rover SUV parked in the compound were recovered.
The spokesman added that Ogunbiyi and Adegoke were not new to crime. He said, “Investigations revealed that while Ogunbiyi coordinated local operations, Adebisi Ademola Omoyele, also known as ‘Mr. Bee’, who is currently in Dubai, directed the cartel’s international network.”
He further revealed that Adegoke was jailed in the UK in 2021 for methamphetamine trafficking before being deported in 2024, while Ogunbiyi had earlier served a 14-year sentence for murder in the UK before his return to Nigeria.
Meanwhile, a Milan Italy-based Nigerian Gabriel Michael was on Friday 5th September arrested by NDLEA operatives at the departure hall of Terminal 1 of the Lagos airport while attempting to board an Air France flight to Italy.
He was found to have concealed a total of 24,480 pills of tramadol 100mg, 200mg, and 225mg, which he claimed he was going to sell for 19,520 euros.
A total of 160,200 bottles of codeine-based syrup were discovered in a 40ft container during a joint examination of the shipment by NDLEA officers and men of Nigeria Customs and other security agencies at West Africa Container Terminal (WACT) Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers state on Thursday 4th September.
The container which has 220 cartons of ceramic sanitary wares used as cover for the codeine syrup was one of the shipments watch-listed and tracked by a special operations unit of NDLEA while the illicit consignment has an estimated street value of over N1.1 billion.
In the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, NDLEA operatives on a stop and search operation on Thursday 4th September arrested a dispatch rider Joel Bernard, 32, in Gwarimpa area of the FCT while conveying 3.1kg of Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis.
