Four arrested as NDLEA uncovers illicit drug market in Abuja hotel

• Nabs two Poly students, eight others in Abuja, Lagos, Edo, Kaduna raids

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have uncovered a hotel in Abuja where drugs are sold and young ladies camped for commercial sex.
 
At least, four persons; three ladies and a man were arrested when the drug joint, JAT Suites, located at 30 Lobito Crescent, Wuse 2 was raided and some quantity of Rohypnol and paraphernalia for smoking crack cocaine were recovered on Wednesday, September 22.
   
Investigations by NDLEA revealed that the hotel is operated without requisite approvals in a high profile neighbourhood and patronised by call girls, while the bar serves as the spot to smoke and sell drugs to the young girls and their customers.

Director, Media & Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, Femi Babafemi, in a statement, yesterday said Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), has directed the FCT Command and the Directorate of Assets and Financial Investigations of the Agency to do all within the law to ensure the property is forfeited to the federal government to serve as deterrence to others who allow their premises to be used for drug dealing.
   
In another instance, one Ms. Ozigbo Joy Nneka, was arrested at NAHCO Export Shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, while trying to export packs of codeine tablets weighing 15.15kg to the United Kingdom last Wednesday.

A day earlier, Tuesday, September 21, narcotic officers at the airport also arrested one Nwajindo Ndubuisi Emmanuel during inward clearance of Ethiopian Airline passengers at the E-arrival hall. Some bottles of codeine weighing 5.65kg were recovered from him.
 
At the same airport, a total of 150.30kg of khat was seized on Monday, September 20,  after six weeks of placing the consignment, which arrived at the SAHCO shed on August 2, via Kenya Airways cargo flight, on surveillance.
   
In a related development, two female part one students of Edo State Polytechnic, Uzen, Babalola Modupe Angel (19) and Esekhagbe Sonia (20) were arrested on Thursday, September, 23 with 21 wraps of skunk, while another lady, Chioma Okocha, 25, was arrested the following day Friday,  September 24, when she tried to deliver 200 grammes of Crack Cocaine to a customer at an eatery in Benin.

Earlier, men of the Irrua Area Command of the agency working on actionable intelligence evacuated 10 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 135kg in Amahor bush in Igueben area.  The exhibits were stored ready for transportation to other parts of the country.
   
Similarly, men of the Okada Area Command yesterday, evacuated 2,937 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa from Utese forest in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State.
     
In Kaduna State, a widow and notorious drug dealer, Mrs. Fatima Musa was arrested on Saturday, September 18 at Afana village in Zango Kataf LGA,  while moving 12kg of cannabis to Jos.
 
She had earlier been convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment on July 7, 2020 following her arrest on  March 3, 2020 with 45kg of cannabis sativa.

While commending officers of the agency for the raids, arrests and seizures in the past week, Marwa urged them not to rest on their oars until the menace of drug trafficking and abuse is reduced to the barest minimum in every part of the country.

(The Guardian)