NDLEA arrests four suspected members of drug cartel, declares 11 wanted

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has four suspected members of a drug cartel in the country.

The NDLEA Chairman, Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa (retd), announced this at a news conference on Tuesday in Lagos.

He said 11 other persons are wanted for a similar offence.

Marwa added that the agency intercepted the largest consignment of heroin at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The seizure, according to him, led to the arrest of the suspects, and a wife to one of them.

The chairman said the cartel specialised in trafficking heroin across Africa and Europe.

Marwa explained that it took the agency’s operatives 12 days in a well-coordinated operation to intercept the drugs.

READ ALSO: NDLEA arrests pregnant woman, mother of three, others; recover 7.6 tonnes of illicit drugs

He said: “Our operatives did due diligence by conducting a thorough search of a warehouse.

“This led to the recovery of 56 cartons of the cutting machines used for concealment of the substances.

“At this point, it was clear that we were dealing with a syndicate that operates in other countries.

The syndicate had a network because the consignments seized were marked with several code names.

“In a follow-up operation, the operatives uncovered from the suspects a long list of receivers of illicit drugs.”

The chairman said the NDLEA had taken pre-emptive actions, including the freezing of 107 bank accounts associated with the members of the cartel and the seizure of N119.6 million found in some accounts.

He commended the security agencies for their support in the fight against drug trafficking in the country.

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