On New Year’s Day, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos intercepted a consignment of Colorado, a potent strain of cannabis, hidden in boxing kits imported from the United States. Following a weeklong intelligence-led operation, 38-year-old Olorunfunmi Olakunle, the receiver of the shipment, was arrested on January 6. Olakunle confessed to distributing the dangerous psychoactive substance to dealers across Lagos.
The consignment, labeled as boxing kits, arrived in the country on January 1 via Cairo on an Egypt Airlines flight, with a total weight of 1.80 kilograms. Olakunle mentioned that he receives such shipments from his childhood friend, US-based Sagir Salami.
In a separate operation in Kaduna, the NDLEA arrested a 28-year-old female supplier of ammunition to bandits, Bilkisu Suleman. She was apprehended on January 3 along the Zaria–Kano Expressway, carrying 249 rounds of 7.62 mm live ammunition concealed in her handbag. Suleman was en route to deliver the ammunition to an identified bandit in Kakumi village, Katsina State.
Other notable arrests include Francis Suru, 37, in Lagos with 63 jumbo bags of Ghanaian Loud, a strain of cannabis, weighing 2,104.2 kilograms, and Queen Onyema, 27, arrested on the Okene-Lokoja Expressway with cannabis and designer drugs.
In Niger State, two suspects, Umar Musa, 26, and Isachiru Abubakar, were arrested during a stop and search operation along the Suleja-Kaduna Road, with 23 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5kg. In Kano, Mubarak Sani, 20, was apprehended with 445.9 kilograms of the same psychoactive substance.
Additional arrests occurred in Borno, where four suspects were caught with 60kg of cannabis, and in Osun, where NDLEA operatives intercepted a consignment of illicit drugs sent from Lagos to Osogbo. The seized drugs included cannabis sativa, Loud, Colorado, and Molly, totaling 10.974kg. The arrested suspect, Ibrahim Olawale, 43, was found in possession of digital scales, cash, and customised wrapping papers for Colorado.