When agents from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) stormed a notorious drug lord’s hotel room in the Okota neighborhood of Lagos State late on Friday, July 21, he was preparing a hired courier to swallow 93 pellets of cocaine intended for distribution in Italy. The kingpin was known for sponsoring young Nigerians to traffic cocaine to Europe.
Charles Uwagbale, a 48-year-old drug lord, had lured Uju Dominic, 35, from his base in Italy with an offer to travel to Nigeria, consume 100 cocaine pellets on July 21, and depart for Italy on July 22.
The mule was housed in the Golden Heaven Hotel when he arrived in Nigeria. It is situated at Enoma Street, off Ago-Palace Way, in Okota, Isolo, Lagos.
At around 23:45 on Friday, Uwagbale brought 93 wraps of the Class A substance to his room for him to consume.
When NDLEA agents broke into their hotel room as the procedure was still going on, they had been on their trail thanks to reliable intelligence.
The drug exhibit, weighing 1.427 kilos, was confiscated from the accused after they were taken into custody.
Similar to how they made the arrest, agents from the Lagos State Command of the Agency conducted a raid in the Mushin neighborhood of Akala on July 20 and seized 37.5kg of cannabis from the residence of a suspect who was fleeing.
The anti-drug agency also prevented an attempt to enter Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos using 98 boxes with 5,122,900 Tramadol 225mg tablets with an estimated street value of N3.7 billion.
Officials from the NDLEA and Nigeria Customs Service found the hidden shipment at the airport and the DHL cargo depot. According to preliminary research, the confiscated consignments were imported from Pakistan and India, with some of them having Freetown, Sierra Leone, listed as their eventual destination.
In a similar vein, NDLEA agents in the state of Bauchi found 6,265,080 opioid tablets on three suspects, 32-year-old Emmanuel Onyebuchi, 33-year-old Uche Iyida, and 32-year-old Chinedu Ezeanyim.
On July 19, a truck driver and his helper were also detained with the three suspects at the Maiduguri Bye-Pass Shopping Complex in Bauchi.
Additionally, on Friday, July 21, NDLEA agents seized 999,500 Exol-5 pills from a store near the market in Hong Road, Gombi, Adamawa State. Similarly, on July 17, 46,000 tramadol pills were taken from a suspect, Paul Ajaegbu, 36, on the Owerri-Aba Road in Imo State. The same suspect was previously detained for the same offense on February 9, 2023.
On July 20, NDLEA agents from Ondo State invaded the Ofosu woodland and demolished 29 hectares of marijuana crops there. During the raid, Osamezu George Chukwuemeka, 51, the farm’s owner, together with his wife Kate Osamezu, 43, Agboola Wasiu, 37, and Mustapha Sanni, were all taken into custody. The property also yielded 118.5 kg of processed cannabis.
On Monday, July 17, not fewer than 107 giant bags of the same illegal material totaling 1,132.5kg were found in a search of a suspect’s warehouse in Elegbeka, Ose LGA.
On Friday, July 21, NDLEA agents in Sokoto State captured a fleeing suspect, Shaibu Musa, 29, in Dawasa, while their colleagues in Yobe also apprehended Charles Nwankwo, 50, a suspect with 610kg of cannabis. Following the discovery of 36 kg of skunk at his home on Wednesday, July 19, Musa offered the anti-drug officers N500,000 payment.
On July 17, the agency’s agents entered Edo State’s Utese woodland in Ovia North East LGA and detained Victor Asukwo Jack there along with 59 bags of processed cannabis sativa totaling 640kg.
His two cannabis farms, which had a combined area of 1.49 and 2.5 hectares, were destroyed.
Additionally, 50-year-old Endurance Chukwuma was detained together with seven bags of processed cannabis sativa totaling 68kg, and his 0.25-hectare cannabis farm was destroyed.
On Wednesday, July 19, near Ogida, Benin City, a Toyota Sienna with the license plate RBC 451 CM was also stopped carrying a total of 273 kg of marijuana, and a suspect, Lucky Oriakhi, 41, was detained.