The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a wanted suspected drug baron in Lagos.
According to a statement by Femi Babafemi, the agency’s spokesperson, the suspect whose name was given as Ugochukwu Chukwukadibia, said to be the Chairman of Auto Nation, located along the Lekki-Epe expressway, Lagos, was arrested with Tramadol 225mg worth N8.86 billion.
Auto Nation was before now, an accredited dealer of PAN Nigeria, assembler and distributor of Peugeot vehicles in Nigeria.
The latest arrest comes about five months after the agency arrested another baron, Afam Ukatu, who reportedly has links to the suspended police commissioner, Abba Kyari. He imported containers of tramadol worth N22 billion in one month, the agency said.
The NDLEA had a month ago also announced the discovery of two major hidden laboratories in Lagos and Anambra states where crystal methamphetamine, called Mkpuru Mmiri in local Ibo parlance, was produced and from where they are distributed across the country and exported outside Nigeria.
In September, in what “appears to be the biggest singular cocaine seizure” in the country, the agency also said its operatives busted a major warehouse in a secluded estate in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State, where over N194 billion worth of crack were seized.
In the latest arrest, the NDLEA said Mr Chukwukadibia, a 52-year-old, was arrested in one of his six mansions in the same estate which is being used as a drug warehouse.
The statement also said the suspect had been on the watch list of the NDLEA.
