••••RAZES 317 TONS OF CANNABIS WAREHOUSES, ARRESTS FOUR
•••COLLABORATES WITH EFCC TO SEIZE $269,000 FAKE DOLLARS, NABS THREE SYNDICATE MEMBERS IN JOINT OPERATION IN LAGOS
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have raided a forest in Edo and destroyed cannabis farms and 317 tons of cannabis warehouses and arrested four suspects.
Also, the Agency on Thursday 19 January, working on intelligence received from the Drug Enforcement Administration of the United States, busted a criminal syndicate involved in the trafficking of fake USD currency in Lagos.
It was gathered that during a combined operation carried out by NDLEA operatives with their Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, counterparts, a total of $269,000 counterfeit US dollars were recovered from the currency traffickers at Oniru Shoprite area of Lekki, Lagos, and arrested the suspects.
The clampdown is coming few days after the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), read the riot act to drug traffickers and their barons.
He vowed to make life tough for drug barons and cartels in the new year if they fail to back out of the illicit trade.
Director, Media and Advocacy,
NDLEA, Headquarters, Abuja, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Saturday, said the operatives of the Agency dealt a lethal blow to a cluster of cannabis syndicates operating in the Opuje forests in Edo State.
He explained that massive warehouses and tents storing 317.4 metric tons of the psychoactive substance were destroyed and set ablaze in a two-day operation.
According to Babafemi, a police impersonator, Omoruan Theophilus, 37, who parades as a police Inspector conveying the drugs from the forests to the cities and three others were apprehended.
The suspects are Aigberuan Jacob, 42, Ekeinde Anthony Zaza, 53, and Naomi Patience Ohiewere, 42, were arrested in connection with the drugs.
“The Opuje community in Owan West Local Government Area, Edo State, is notorious for cannabis cultivation, where the cartels invest huge resources, cutting down economic trees of the forest reserves and cultivating cannabis on a large scale, running into hundreds of hectares.
“After harvest, they build warehouses inside the forest reserves and employ the services of armed youths to protect the warehouses 24/7.
“Accessing the forest on Wednesday 18th January took hours of trekking by hundreds of NDLEA operatives who were ambushed with bonfire by armed youths on their way out of the community the following day but were able to successfully leave the area without any casualty except the heavy investment losses inflicted on the cartels.” He said.
The NDLEA boss, expressed delight over the operation and commended all the officers involved in the two special operations in Edo and Lagos for their professionalism and commitment.
Gen. Marwa, however, directed that the fake dollars recovered and suspects arrested in the Lekki operation be immediately transferred to the EFCC for possible prosecution.
