A consignment of 26.150kilograms of heroin with a street value of over N6.5 billion has been intercepted by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), at the SAHCO shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.
NDLEA’s Director, Media, and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, who confirmed the development in a statement, yesterday, said the illicit drug had arrived in Lagos in 25 parcels from South Africa, through an Air Peace Airline flight on June 30, 2021, and was detained for screening, following reasonable suspicion of the content of the consignment.
He said there was a follow-up operation the next day by narcotic officers of the MMIA command, who trailed the driver and a clearing agent that was assigned to deliver the consignment to the house of a baron, Tony Chidi Onwurolu, at No. 132 Lateef Adegboyega Street, off Ago palace way, by Grandmate bus stop, Okota, Lagos.
“During the follow-up operation, Tony Chidi Onwurolu, who obviously mounted a counter-surveillance around his neighbourhood fled his home before the arrival of the team of operatives who stormed his residence. They were, however, able to search his home and recover a number of documents to establish his true identity,” Babafemi disclosed in the statement.
Following the development, the Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), has directed that the fleeing drug baron be declared wanted, immediately, and his details submitted to Interpol, for tracking across the world.
He, therefore, directed the agency’s Directorate of Assets and Financial Investigations, as well as the Directorate of Intelligence to deploy their networks to fast track the arrest of Onwurolu.
Marwa said in view of the volume of heroin brought into the country by the fleeing baron, the agency would deploy all available mechanisms, locally and internationally, to track him and bring him to face charges in the law court.
“Those, who have been on the run for 10 years and some for five years, have since tracked them and are now facing charges while cooling their heels behind bars. The latest one won’t be an exception, because he can only run but can’t hide for too long before we get him”,
Marwa vowed.
In the same vein, operatives of the Command also intercepted a 4.3kg skunk imported from Canada. The package, which came on Ethiopian Airlines, was concealed in nine packs of cereals.
Also, on July 9, one Babatunde Usman Omogbolahan Bakare was intercepted by NDLEA operatives with 550grams of cannabis and 50grams of Rohypnol (Flunitrazepam) concealed in six jerry cans of local herbal mixtures called Gabo at SAHCO export shed, MMIA, Ikeja. The drug was detected during outward clearance of Cargo going to Dubai.
Earlier, last Tuesday, operatives of the MMIA Command conducted a follow-up operation at Gate 2, Ladipo Oluwole Street, opposite Guinness Bottling Company, Ikeja, where one Animashaun Kabiru was apprehended for questioning over a bag containing bitter kola, which was brought for export to the UK. When the bag of bitter kola was searched, it was discovered that it was mixed with some wraps of a substance suspected to be an illicit drug. Thirty-six wraps of the suspected substance later tested positive for Cocaine, weighing 600grams.
In a related development, an Uber driver, Lawal Tunde Rasheed, arrested on June 8, in connection with the seizure of a cocaine consignment has been let off the hook, following his cooperation that led to the arrest of the real owner of the drug, Mr. Egbo Emmanuel Maduka, who, in his statement, accepted ownership of the consignment and absolved Lawal of any complicity.
While commending the officers and men of the MMIA Command of the agency for the series of seizures and arrests in the past week, Gen. Marwa asked them not to rest on their oars, adding that
“we must all remain fully prepared and proactive at all times, if we have to battle this scourge to a standstill.”
