With the capture of two of the cartel’s members, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has foiled the operations of a drug syndicate that ran between Nigeria, East Africa, and Europe.
This was stated in a declaration made on Sunday in Abuja by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA.
According to Babafemi, the NDLEA agents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos, made the capture and stopped the drug trafficking attempts.
He stated that on Monday, March 13, agents at the Lagos Airport detained Ejezie Ifeanyi, a member of the drug cartel, while screening incoming passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft from Malawi via Addis Abeba in the arrivals area.
After a check of him, Babafemi continued, it was found that one of his two bags had a false bottom concealment.
“During preliminary interview of the suspect, he confessed that a member of the syndicate was waiting at the airport car park to pick him,” he said.
He claims that an immediate follow-up operation resulted in the capture of Franco Chukwu, who was ready to accept the drug shipment in a grey Mercedes Benz C180 coupe with the licence plate EKY 973 GQ.
“After his arrest, a proper search of the bag was conducted before the two suspects leading to the recovery of 3.00 kilograms of heroin.
The drug gang networks run between Nigeria, Malawi, Mozambique in East Africa, and Europe, according to the findings.
According to Babafemi, Chukwu, who resides in Lagos, is in charge of organising the hiring of mules and overseeing their operations on behalf of other cartel members located in Mozambique and Malawi, while another group operates out of the south-eastern region of Nigeria.
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