Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have launched fresh raids on online drug traffickers and couriers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The operations led to the arrest of a young lady, her boyfriend and eight others and the recovery of assorted prohibited drugs.
Director of Media and Advocacy of the agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement, said the first suspect, 28-year-old Ese Patrick, who sells her illicit substances through Instagram account, Ese’sOvenSecret, was tracked and arrested with some pieces of brownies ordered online by NDLEA’s undercover agents on May 21, 2021, and delivered by herself and her boyfriend in a Mercedes Benz car.
“A follow-up operation at her residence led to the seizure of 400 grammes of Arizona weed, which she uses in baking the brownies.
“Further investigation led to the arrest of one Iyama Patrick, with 450 grammes of Arizona weed. He supplies the cannabis she uses.”
Babafemi explained that a day earlier, a motorcycle belonging to a courier company, Sky Port, was abandoned by a dispatch rider in Wuse Zone 4 upon sighting NDLEA’s outpost in the area.
The motorcycle, he said, was later found to contain several pinches of crack cocaine, called Challie, and some envelopes of Arizona weeds meant for delivery.
Another online drug trafficker, Peter Nkejika, was arrested on Monday, May 24, 2021 following an arrest of a dispatch rider with some quantity of loud, a highly psychoactive variant of cannabis. Each portion of loud costs N30,000 and the rider was caught with 17 portions for delivery.
Also on Tuesday, May25, NDLEA operatives intercepted two online drug transactions and arrested two dispatch riders with some quantities of cocaine and loud already packaged for delivery recovered from them.
In all, five dispatch riders and a lady, Dolapo Benjamin, who owns motorcycles involved in the door-to-door distribution of drugs and drug-based edibles – cakes and brownies – were arrested while six dispatch motorcycles involved in the distribution were seized.
Also seized from them were assorted drugs such as cocaine, crack/challie, molly/ecstasy, skunkweeds, brownies and loud, which is the most expensive psychoactive variant of the cannabis in town.
In a related development, on May 27, 2021, operatives of the agency intercepted 30 compressed parcels of cannabis in transit to Ningi, Bauchi State, as well as Rohypnol and Tramadol meant for the FCT. The drugs, weighing 105.5 kilogrammes, were seized on the Gwagwalada-Abuja Road, in a luxury bus.
Three persons were arrested in connection with the exhibits, while two more dispatch motorcycles were seized with some quantities of cocaine and cannabis on Saturday, May 29, as the raids across the FCT intensified.
Meanwhile, operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations (DOGI) of the agency have intercepted 445 grammes of Methamphetamine going to New Zealand and concealed inside USB chargers and hair attachments, with another 450 grammes of cannabis sativa going to UAE and concealed inside local soap containers at a courier company in Lagos.
In the same vein, 125 grammes of heroin concealed inside academic thesis books was seized at another firm, while 2kg of cannabis sativa hidden inside tractor’s balloon was intercepted at another courier company also in Lagos.
Following the latest arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Mohamed Buba Marwa, directed the FCT Command of the agency to immediately embark on stop-and-search operations of commercial dispatch riders across the nation’s capital city to curb the online drug trafficking trend in the FCT
