The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested a 101-year-old woman for alleged drug trafficking while also intercepting cocaine concealed in edible fufu in a series of operations across the country.
The agency said its operatives made the arrests and seizures during intelligence-led operations conducted across land and maritime routes in the past week.
According to the NDLEA, the centenarian, identified as Esther Ogunmabo, was arrested on August 15 at Ilisan, Ogun State, with 90 grammes of cannabis, otherwise known as skunk, packaged in small sachets.
The agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.
Babafemi said Ogunmabo told investigators that she started selling illicit drugs after her provision store was destroyed by fire, adding that her daughter, who lives in Lagos, allegedly supplied the drugs to her.
The NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (retd.), subsequently directed that the elderly woman be released on bail and placed under counselling because of her age, while her daughter was arrested for investigation.
In another operation in Akwa Ibom, NDLEA operatives on August 21 intercepted a wooden boat allegedly transporting illicit drugs to fishing communities in Cameroon.
Three suspects were arrested during the operation, including 27-year-old Kingsley Effiong John, who was allegedly found with 20 grammes of cocaine concealed inside a wrap of fufu. Operatives also recovered 435 grammes of cannabis from him, while the total quantity of narcotics seized from the suspects stood at 42.622 kilogrammes.
Meanwhile, the agency said it seized synthetic cannabis known as Loud worth more than N4.4bn from two containers at the Apapa and Lekki ports in Lagos.
The NDLEA described the seizures as its first interception of illicit drugs shipped into Nigeria through a maritime route from Thailand.
At Apapa Port, operatives found 1,090.5kg of Loud packed in 2,181 sachets inside a container declared to contain dry fish, rice, spare parts, soap and inverter batteries.
Another 400kg of the substance was recovered from a watch-listed container at Lekki Deep Sea Port, where it had allegedly been concealed beneath 798 reams of A4 paper.
The agency also reported the seizure of 24,410 tramadol pills concealed in waybill packages inside a bus travelling from Enugu to Zuba. The owner of the consignment was subsequently arrested in Kontagora, Niger State.
In Ondo State, NDLEA operatives destroyed 10,000kg of cannabis found on a four-hectare farm in Ijare Forest, while 1.325kg of methamphetamine and cannabis were recovered from a vehicle intercepted along the Ogbomosho-Ilorin Expressway in Kwara State.
Similarly, a 65-year-old woman was arrested in Ibadan, Oyo State, with 4.68kg of illicit substances comprising Loud, tramadol, codeine syrup, diazepam and flunitrazepam.
The agency said further raids in Kano, Seme in Lagos State and Abia State also led to the recovery of various illicit drugs, including Loud, Colorado cannabis, tramadol and Rohypnol.
Beyond arrests and seizures, the NDLEA said its commands continued with sensitisation campaigns under the War Against Drug Abuse initiative, targeting schools, religious bodies and community leaders in several states.
Marwa commended the operatives involved in the various operations and urged them to remain committed to the agency’s balanced approach to combating drug trafficking and abuse.
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