ABUJA: Over the past three weeks, Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) carried out an intelligence-driven operation that broke up a major cocaine trafficking syndicate.
The agency arrested the leader and uncovered a complex method for hiding drugs.
The case started on March 11, when NDLEA officers at Murtala Muhammed International Airport found 3.1 kilograms of cocaine hidden in tins of palm kernel extract headed for the United Kingdom.
They arrested two suspects, which led to a sting operation that exposed the syndicate’s structure.
On April 2, officers found the person who sent the shipment, who had been using a fake identity.
After his arrest, investigators located the syndicate’s leader, 52-year-old King Arinze, hiding in Isolo, Lagos.
At his warehouse, NDLEA found 886 tins ready for hiding drugs, along with tools for draining oil and resealing the containers.
The agency said that Arinze admitted to preparing the tins himself to hide the cocaine.
NDLEA Chairman Buba Marwa praised the operation as a sign of the agency’s growing intelligence skills.
He promised that traffickers, no matter how they try to hide, would be caught.
The Lagos operation was part of a larger nationwide crackdown last week.
Other arrests included a woman supplying bandits in Borno, a pastor and his wife caught smuggling skunk at the Seme border, and several seizures of tramadol and cannabis in Adamawa, Osun, Ondo, Edo, and Oyo states.
Marwa praised the team’s efforts and highlighted NDLEA’s commitment to cutting off drug cartels’ supply routes.
