Intrigue as NDLEA arrests cartel lords trafficking consignment sealed in Semovita

The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted various quantities of skunks, ephedrine, and nitrous oxide, popularly referred to as laughing gas, concealed in packs of Semovita and dry pepper.

According to Channels, the consignments were shipped to Kenya and South Africa through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos.

Femi Babafemi, the spokesperson of the NDLEA, in a statement on Sunday, September 3, disclosed that members of the Transnational Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO), were shipping the consignment and that some of them were immediately arrested.

Babafemi further disclosed that their residences were raided, and their luxury vehicles were seized.

The statement partly read: “Through credible intelligence, NDLEA operatives on Friday, 25th August, intercepted a notorious drug trafficker, Suleiman Babatunde Oba, who is a member of a cartel distributing Cocaine, Heroin, Methamphetamine and Ephedrine between Nigeria, Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, and Europe."

Babafemi said Oba was arrested when he was attempting to enter a Rwanda Air flight from Nigeria to South Africa with packs of Semovita sealed with two boxes of loaded with ephedrine.

He stressed that the recovered substances were precursor chemicals and active ingredients used in the production of methamphetamine.

The statement added that Oba has stayed in South Africa for over 20 years and has a South African passport, as he has a South African wife. The statement said he lives as the cartel's leader in Lagos and South Africa.