By Maxwell Oyekunle
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a wanted drug baron, Mr. Frank Chijioke Ibemesi, alias Chisco Bee, after weeks of intelligence gathering and surveillance.
According to a statement issued in Abuja by the Director, Media & Advocacy of NDLEA, Mr Femi Babfemi, operatives of the agency’s Special Operations Unit picked up the 42-year-old suspect, who is the Managing Director of Franc CJ Ibemesi Nig. Ltd., at his Daisy Garden Hotel on Ago Palace Way, Isolo, Lagos, in the early hours of 15 November.
NDLEA officers later led him to his warehouse on Pius Ezeobi Street, where they recovered 42 jumbo bags and four cartons of “Loud” cannabis weighing 1,762.8kg.
They also seized foreign currency found on him, including $11,600, £2,000, €2,200, and 50 Canadian dollars.
The agency also disrupted a major cannabis-processing syndicate in the Orita-Apeje and Araromi-Okeodo forest reserve in Ife South LGA, Osun State.
Operatives seized 11,135kg of skunk, two trucks used for distribution, and arrested seven suspects: Lucky Abiodun, Julius Amos, Victor Ngbikili, Sunday Oduegwu, Ibrahim Akanni, Eze Godstime, and Fred Ifeanyichukwu.
Across Edo State, NDLEA officers recovered 1,902.1kg of skunk, including 184.1kg along Oza/Igbanke road, 672kg from Utese forest, and 494kg from a Mercedes-Benz vehicle on the Benin–Akure road where a suspect, Felix Edah, 45, was arrested.
Another suspect, 51-year-old Lucky Abagha, was caught with 552kg of cannabis in a separate vehicle.
In Ogun State, operatives arrested four suspects—Micheal Okoh, Offor Agada, Raphael Nkemjika, and Nwabueze Franklin—with 68kg of skunk and 3.150kg of methamphetamine along the Ijebu-Ode Expressway.
In Taraba State, the agency arrested 50-year-old Danjuma Tukura, with 172kg of skunk at Sunkani in Ardo Kola LGA, and 24-year-oldWisdom Titus, 24, with 84kg at Takum.
NDLEA officers in Adamawa recovered 396,000 tramadol capsules from Ahmed Isyaku Nda, 50, at Aliyu Mustapha International Airport in Yola.
In Nasarawa, they evacuated 785kg of skunk from the warehouse of a dealer still at large in Asob Maraba Karu.
Multiple seizures were also recorded in Lagos where two suspects, Jamiu Kunle Kardoso and Oriyomi Waliu, were arrested in Surulere with 65.150kg of Canadian Loud, while Taofeek Moraina was arrested in Oyingbo with 141kg of Ghana Loud.
In Kwara State, operatives intercepted a truck conveying 197 blocks of skunk weighing 78.565kg and 155 cartons of rubber solutions on the Ilorin–Jebba Expressway and the driver, Umar Yakubu, was detained.
A commercial bus was also intercepted at Eiyenkorin with 20 blocks of skunk concealed in a 50-litre jerrycan, leading to the arrest of the driver, Ibrahim Bello.
Meanwhile, NDLEA commands across the country continued War against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization campaigns in schools, worship centres, workplaces, and communities in Zamfara, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Enugu, Lagos, and Ogun States.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), commended the commands involved and urged officers nationwide to sustain the agency’s push for a drug-free Nigeria.
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