At Abuja International Airport, a South African was apprehended with a ‘Mkpulu Mmiri’ shipment

NDLEA agents detained Erasmus Jean-Pierre of South Africa at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja for attempting to smuggle 2.6 kilograms of methamphetamine, also known as Mkpulu Mmiri, through the Nigerian airport to the Middle East.

An attempt by a 29-year-old South African, Erasmus Jean-Pierre, to export 2.6 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed in his luggage to the Middle East through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA Abuja, on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, was thwarted by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, who arrested him and recovered the illicit drug,” read a press release from the anti-narcotics agency on Sunday.

He revealed that the suspect was detained by NDLEA agents while boarding Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 404 from Abuja to the Middle East via Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. He claimed that a thorough search of the suspect’s luggage resulted in the discovery of the factory for the white powdery illegal substance, which was packed in various locations of the bag.

Preliminary evidence, according to Babafemi, showed that the suspect traveled from Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to Lagos on Saturday, August 19, arrived in Abuja on Tuesday, August 22, and took possession of the brown bag containing the drug shipment last Wednesday before leaving Nigeria by flying out of Abuja.

While on patrol along Darazo Road last Monday, NDLEA officers in Gombe State discovered an abandoned Volkswagen Sharon with the license plate GME 76 XD that was loaded with 373,420 pills of opiates, including tramadol and diazepam.

Additionally, on Wednesday, agents in Ogun State conducted a raid on the residence of a drug dealer named Ifeanyi Orji in the state’s Ibafo neighborhood, where they seized 81,000 tramadol 225mg tablets totaling 32.4 kg.

Last Tuesday, NDLEA agents in Adamawa State found 60,000 tramadol tablets on suspect Ibrahim Abba, 25, who was driving from Kalaa village to Mubi in a hired Toyota Starlet automobile. Agents also stopped two consignments of skunk with a gross weight of 1,242.1 kg in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

The first shipment, weighing 665.1 kilograms, was found in a truck in Area 3 on Sunday, August 20, and the second, weighing 577 kilograms, was found that same day during a stop-and-search operation on the Lokoja-Abaji road. In a Mercedes container vehicle driven by Yusuf Yakubu Asokomhe and his assistant Tunde Ogundare, the shipment was hidden inside Jumia products delivery packs.

A commercial truck transporting products from Lagos to Katsina was stopped last Tuesday in Kwara State by agents on patrol along the Jebba-Minna road. The cargo had 37.5 kilograms of cannabis sativa concealed among other commodities. Abdulazeez Usman, the driver, and Halidu Musa, his assistant, were detained in order to do additional research.

Similar to this, in Yobe state, NDLEA agents stopped a Sharon Galaxy with the registration number AKK 484 XA on Wednesday that was traveling from Baissa, Kurmi local government area of Taraba state. Ya’u Yahuza, 30, Yahaya Muhd, 29, and Tanimu Salisu, 20, were the other two suspects in the car. They were also found with 133 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 62 kilograms.

Operatives in Edo last Thursday attacked the Uzebba forest in the state’s Owan West local government area, where they demolished around three hectares of cannabis farms and detained Esazobor Ohioze, 33, with 54.3 kg of cannabis found in a shack.

117 grams of ketamine that were being shipped to Indonesia in a pair of leather men’s slippers and 2.14 kilograms of skunk that were expertly hidden in the walls of a local wooden drum, according to Babafemi, were both thwarted by NDLEA agents from the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, DOGI, who were attached to courier companies in Lagos.

While praising the officers and staff of the NAIA, Gombe, Ogun, Adamawa, FCT, Kwara, Yobe, and Edo Commands, as well as those of DOGI, for a job well done over the past week, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd) charged them and their colleagues across the nation to step up their drug supply reduction operations and balance them out with drug demand reduction initiatives.