The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has announced then arrest of a wanted drug lord, 40-year-old Yussuf Abayomi Azeez.

NDLEA said the suspect was arrested by its special operations unit of at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos, while on his way to Saudi Arabia for Umrah, a holy pilgrimage, after months of intelligence and surveillance on him and his criminal drug activities.

This was announced on Sunday in a statement by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media & Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja.

According to the statement, the drug kingpin had been arrested and charged for drug offences in the United Kingdom but jumped bail and escaped to Nigeria.

The suspect was alleged to have set up a massive clandestine laboratory in the Lekki area of the state for the production of Colorado, a deadly synthetic cannabis and other illicit substances soon after settling down in Lagos.

Babafemi disclosed that at the time of his arrest, Yussuf was found in company of another suspect, 43-year-old Abideen Kekere-Ekun.

Inside the massive building, operatives from the Agency’s Directorate of Forensic and Chemical Monitoring were able to dismantle all installed laboratory equipment, precursor chemicals and already produced illicit substances including Colorado, all weighing 148.3 kilograms.

At the Sifax bonded terminal in Okota, Lagos, NDLEA operatives in conjunction with men of Customs Service and other security agencies on Friday 7th November discovered 105.5kg Molly, a designers drug and 500grams of methamphetamine during a joint examination of
a shipment.

In Niger state, NDLEA operatives on Thursday 6th November intercepted Ibrahim Mohammed, 35, in a Volvo truck marked GRZ 872 XA along Kainji-Wawa road while conveying 87,000 pills of tramadol and 72kg of skunk, a strain of cannabis.

Not less than 34,520 capsules of tramadol were found concealed in different compartments of a Toyota Corolla car marked GAN 102 AR intercepted along Zaki-Biam – Wukari road on Monday 3rd November while the driver Aliyu Samaila, 25, was arrested.

The opioids were loaded from Onitsha, Anambra State, and heading to Cameroon. In another operation in Taraba, NDLEA officers on Thursday 6th November arrested a suspect Felix Tanko Chinedu, 28, with 15,020 capsules of tramadol at Kasuwabera ATC in Ardo Kola LGA.

In Kogi state, NDLEA operatives on patrol along Okene/Lokoja highway on Wednesday 5th November intercepted a consignment of 7.600kg Loud, a strong strain of cannabis. A follow-up operation in Abuja led to the arrest of the owner, Chukwunonso Anieze, 40, while no fewer than 175,000 pills of opioids were recovered from another consignment at the location same day.

Three suspects: Olayide Oyidiran, 39; Abdulsalam Abdulsalam, 28; and Opeyemi Tijjani, 39, were on Wednesday 5th November nabbed at Abuja/Kaduna tollgate with 769kg skunk being conveyed in a truck marked TRE 897 BE, coming from Lagos en route Owo, Ondo state and heading to Kano.

A 73-year-old grandpa James Ugbedo was on Friday 7th November arrested in a cannabis plantation at Igbeshi forest, Imiakebo, Etsako East LGA, Edo state where 1,459.75kg skunk was destroyed and 5.6kg of same substance evacuated, while 70-year-old grandma Mrs. Comfort Odudu was nabbed at Onopa, Yenagoa, Bayelsa state with 5kg skunk on Tuesday 4th November.

While commending the officers and men of SOP, DFCM, Tincan, Edo, Taraba, Kaduna, Kogi, Niger and Bayelsa Commands for the various successful operations, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd) enjoined them and their colleagues across the country to continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the drug control efforts of the Agency.

“The dismantling of yet another clandestine laboratory for the production of Colorado and other dangerous synthetic substances and the arrest of the kingpin behind it in Lekki, coming barely a week after similar actions were taken against another cartel in Ajao estate Lagos shows that these are no doubt the first in the series of what will be many strikes against merchants of death who prey on the weak in our communities. Let it be known to those still hiding in the dark that the NDLEA supported by our local and international law enforcement partners will continue to hunt them and bring them to justice,” Marwa added.