NDLEA intercepts Malaysian returnee with meth consignment

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 41-year-old ex-convict and Malaysian returnee, Ndubuisi Udatu (aka Richard), with two giant music speakers, used to conceal four large parcels of methamphetamine weighing 2.700 kilograms intended for distribution in Yola and Mubi, Adamawa State, and across the border into Cameroon.

The Director of Media and Advocacy for the NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, stated in a press release on Sunday that Ndubuisi was apprehended inside a commercial transport bus at an NDLEA checkpoint in Namtari along Ngurore-Yola Road, Adamawa, on 7 April 2025. The contraband consisted of two new music speakers concealing four packages of methamphetamine and a monetary exhibit of N22,300.

In his statement, Ndubuisi admitted that he returned to Nigeria to resume his illicit drug trade after serving a jail term in Malaysia, where he was previously arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for drug trafficking offences.

In another interdiction exercise, NDLEA officers, in collaboration with Customs personnel at the Nigeria/Cameroon border in Mfum, Cross River State, arrested a trans-border drug trafficker, 35-year-old Odoh Peter Ikechukwu, with 8,740 ampoules of assorted opioids, weighing 395 kilograms.

The seized substances included:

• 1,080 ampoules of fentanyl injection

• 2,160 ampoules of morphine sulphate injection

• 3,010 ampoules of phenobarbital sulphate injection

• 2,160 ampoules of pethidine injection

• 330 ampoules of midazolam injection

In Kano State, Babafemi revealed that NDLEA operatives arrested a 27-year-old suspect, Aliyu Ibrahim, on 11 April 2025, with 20 ATM cards and 25,600 pills of tramadol (225mg and 250mg) at Bachirawa, Kano. A follow-up operation led to the arrest of 48-year-old Gambo Lawan at Wazobia Motor Park in Gwagwalada, FCT Abuja. This followed the seizure of a consignment of 8,960 pills of tramadol during a routine check along Gwagwalada Expressway on 7 April.

Additionally, NDLEA agents recovered 124 kilograms of skunk, a potent strain of cannabis, packaged in 11 jumbo bags on Friday from the boot of a Lexus car marked KTU 54 CU. The car was driven by a suspect, Ademiluyi Adedapo Collins, along Mokwa-Jebba Road in Niger State.

Meanwhile, NDLEA Commands across the country continued their dual approach of drug supply reduction operations and social advocacy campaigns as part of the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA). These campaigns extended to schools, markets, places of worship, and communities in the past week.

Commending the efforts of the officers and men of the Adamawa, Cross River, FCT, Kano, and Niger State Commands, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig-Gen Mohamed Marwa (Rtd), urged them and their colleagues nationwide not to rest on their oars but to continue raising the bar in their offensive against drug cartels. He further emphasised maintaining an equal focus on drug demand reduction initiatives.

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