EKO NEWS

NDLEA Nabs Suspected Drug Lord Asking Italy-bound Mule To Swallow 93 Cocaine Wraps

Published

1 year ago

Jul 23, 2023.

Eko Hot Blog reports that a suspected notorious drug kingpin who specialises in sponsoring young Nigerians to traffick Class A drugs to Europe especially Italy, met his waterloo on Friday as operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) stormed his hotel room in the Okota area of Lagos State.

The NLDEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, announced the development in a statement on Sunday.

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According to Babafemi, the suspected drug kingpin Charles Uwagbale was arrested while he was preparing a recruited courier to swallow 93 pellets of cocaine meant for distribution in Italy.

The 48-year-old suspect had recruited Uju Dominic, 35, from his base in Italy with a deal to come to Nigeria, ingest 100 pellets of cocaine on Friday, July 21, and return to Italy on Saturday, July 22.

True to plan, upon arrival in Nigeria, the mule was lodged in Golden Heaven Hotel located at Enoma street off Ago-Palace way, Okota, Isolo, Lagos where Uwagbale brought 93 wraps of the Class A drug for him to swallow at about 23:45pm Friday night.

Suspected drug kingpin Charles Uwagbale

Babafemi disclosed that the suspected drug lord and his mule were in the process when 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 Mushin area of the state where they recovered 37.5kg cannabis from the home of a fleeing suspect.

Meanwhile, attempts to smuggle 98 cartons containing Five Million One Hundred and Twenty Two Thousand Nine Hundred (5, 122, 900) pills of Tramadol 225mg with an estimated street value of about Three Billion Seven Hundred Million Naira (N3.7billion) only into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, have been thwarted through the robust synergy between men of the Nigeria Customs Service and NDLEA officers at the airport as well as those at the DHL cargo warehouse.

The Tramadol consignments

Preliminary findings revealed that the consignments were imported from India and Pakistan, while some of the seized consignments had Freetown, Sierra Leone as final destination.

Suspects Solomon Ayodele and Ibrahim Ajibola arrested with a consignment of Colorado, a synthetic variant of cannabis

A fresh bid to smuggle into Nigeria, another consignment of Colorado, a synthetic variant of cannabis, through the Tincan port in Apapa Lagos was again on Friday, July 21, frustrated by NDLEA officers who discovered a total of 323 parcels of the illicit substance weighing 161.5kg concealed in one of the four used vehicles in a container marked MEDU 7519460 coming from Montreal, Canada, during a joint examination of the shipment.

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