A suspected notorious drug kingpin who specializes in sponsoring young Nigerians to traffick Class A drugs to Europe especially Italy has been apprehended in his hotel room in the Okota area of Lagos.
Charles Uwagbale, a 48-year-old drug kingpin had recruited Uju Dominic, 35, from his base in Italy with a deal to come to Nigeria, ingest 100 pellets of cocaine on Friday 21st July, and return to Italy on Saturday 22nd July.
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, spokesman Mr. Femi Babafemi said in a statement that the suspected kingpin was arrested by operatives of the agency when he was preparing a recruited carrier to swallow 93 pellets of cocaine meant for distribution in Italy.
“Upon arrival in Nigeria, Dominic was lodged in a hotel at Okota, Isolo, Lagos where Uwagbale brought 93 wraps of the Class A drug for him to swallow at about 11:45 pm Friday.
“They were in the process when NDLEA operatives who have been on their trail following credible intelligence stormed their hotel room, arrested both, and recovered the drug exhibits with a total weight of 1.427 kilograms”.
Operatives of the Lagos State Command of the Agency who made the arrest and seizure had on Thursday 20th July raided Akala in the Mushin area of the state where they recovered 37.5kg cannabis from the home of a fleeing suspect,” Babafemi explained.
In another development, drugs worth N3.7billion of 98 cartons containing 5,122,900 pills of 225mg Tramadol attempted to be smuggled into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, have been thwarted by security operatives.
NDLEA in a statement said the feat was achieved through robust synergy between men of the Nigeria Customs Service and NDLEA officers at the airport and those at the DHL cargo warehouse.
According to preliminary investigations, the consignments were imported from India and Pakistan, while some of the seized consignments had Freetown, Sierra Leone as the final destination.
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