NDLEA busts drug warehouse, seizes cocaine ‘worth N194bn’ in Lagos

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has made the highest cocaine seizure in Nigeria’s history. Operatives of the agency, on Monday, busted a major warehouse where 1.8tons of illicit drugs worth over $278, 250,000, an equivalent of about N194, 775,000,000 in street value were seized in a secluded estate in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

The NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Monday, said at least four drug barons including a Jamaican and the warehouse manager were arrested in the well coordinated and intelligence led operation that lasted two days across different locations in the state.

Kingpins of the cocaine cartel now in custody include Messrs Soji Jibril, 69, an indigene of Ibadan, Oyo State; Emmanuel Chukwu, 65, who hails from Ekwulobia, Anambra State; Wasiu Akinade, 53, from Ibadan, Oyo State; Sunday Oguntelure, 53, from Okitipupa, Ondo State, and Kelvin Smith, 42, a native of Kingston, Jamaica.

Babafemi said, “They are all members of an international drug syndicate that the agency has been trailing since 2018. Located at number 6 Olukuola crescent, Solebo Estate, Ikorodu, the warehouse was raided on Sunday, September 18, 2022, while the barons were picked from hotels and their hideouts in different parts of Lagos between Sunday night and Monday, September 19.

“Preliminary investigation reveals the class A drugs were warehoused in the residential estate from where the cartel was trying to sell them to buyers in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world. They were stored in 10 travel bags and 13 drums.”