The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has busted a trans-border drug trafficking syndicate, arresting four members in intelligence-led operations during which multimillion-naira worth of tramadol pills concealed in the bumper and false bottom of Sienna buses heading to border towns were recovered.
NDLEA’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said the operation began after weeks of surveillance and culminated on Tuesday, January 27, 2025, when a Sienna bus marked ABJ 452 HG was intercepted at Nasarawa-Toto Road, Keffi, Nasarawa State.
Babafemi also disclosed that two suspects, Zahradeen Adamu, 27, and Abubakar Usman, 44, were arrested in the vehicle coming from Onitsha, Anambra State, en route to Yola, Adamawa State. A second Sienna bus driven by Abba Usman, 48, was also intercepted.
“During a search of the two vehicles, specially constructed steel compartments were discovered after the removal of the back bumper, where a total of 190,960 pills of tramadol were concealed, and in the space designed to house the spare tyre of the vehicles,” Babafemi added.
Investigations showed that Kingsley Mbaeri, a dealer based in Onitsha, Anambra State, was the supplier of the confiscated tramadol shipment, Babafemi said.
Mbaeri was arrested on January 29 at his residence on Uga Street in Onitsha, and two vehicles (a Toyota Corolla car marked FGG 948 MF and a Toyota Sienna bus marked GWA 23 HH) were recovered from his house.
In another interdiction, operatives of the Intelligence Department intercepted a commercial bus coming from Onitsha, Anambra State, at Abaji checkpoint, FCT Abuja, on February 4.
A passenger in the bus, Chimezie Henry Ojingwa, 32, carrying motor spare parts in a black bag, was arrested. When his bag was searched, 404.47 grams of methamphetamine, 506.49 grams of Loud (a synthetic strain of cannabis), and 262.32 grams of dimethyl sulfone, a precursor substance for mixing meth, all of which were concealed in the motor parts, were recovered.
In Cross River State, NDLEA officers on patrol along Ogoja-Abakaliki Road in Yahe on Thursday, February 13, intercepted 170,000 pills of tramadol in a truck driven by Paul Chukwudi, 31, while operatives at the Apapa seaport in Lagos on Tuesday, February 11, recovered 85,400 bottles of codeine-based syrup in a container imported from India.