NDLEA Arrests Two Brothers for Drug Trafficking, Seizes $2.4 Million in Drugs

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) officers have arrested two brothers, Ikechukwu Ikeabba and Ugochukwu Ikeabba, alleged financiers of drug traffickers specializing in exporting drugs to Vietnam through ingestion.

Officers of a special operations unit of the NDLEA arrested the brothers on Tuesday, September 10, 2024.

Spokesperson of the anti-drug agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, September 15, said the arrest of the brothers was a result of diligent investigation into an earlier arrest of a businessman from Onitsha in Anambra State, Ibeanusi Solomon Nosike, who excreted 68 wraps of cocaine weighing 1,282 kilograms after 12 days of observation of the excretion, following his arrest at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos by anti-drug agents.

Babafemi said Ibeanusi, 36, was arrested on August 8 at the old domestic terminal of Lagos Airport while attempting to board the first flight out of Lagos to Abuja, where he was supposed to board a Qatar Airways flight to Vietnam at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, at about 10am the same day.

Babafemi noted that another Vietnam-bound businessman, Paul Okwuy Mbadugha, 54, was arrested by NDLEA officers at Abuja airport on August 12 during the departure clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam, via Doha, after testing positive for cocaine ingestion.

He stated that after four days of observation Mbadugha ingested 88 doses of cocaine with a gross weight of 1,710 kilograms.

The NDLEA spokesperson said that during the arrest, the Ikeabba brothers were found with 87 packs of cocaine dummies, used to train potential swallowers.

Babafemi added that NDLEA operatives, acting on credible intelligence, arrested three suspects, Auwal Abdullahi, Isah Rabiu and Abubakar Da’u, on Saturday, September 14, while they were travelling in a DAF truck along the Bauchi-Gombe expressway in Gombe State.

Babafemi revealed that the search of the vehicle led to the seizure of 2,490,000 tramadol pills hidden along with bags of salt.

He further said that NDLEA officers discovered 350,000 bottles of codeine syrup in two containers shipped from India during a joint inspection of the containers with officers of the Nigerian Customs Service and other security agencies at the Tincan Port in Lagos on Tuesday, September 10.

He said the containers were among those targeted by the NDLEA for full inspection.

While commending the anti-drug officers for the arrests and seizures, NDLEA Chairman/CEO, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), said their operational successes and those of their compatriots across the country were highly appreciated.

Marawa also urged them to continue to intensify ongoing efforts to reduce drug supply and demand in the country.

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