By IBIRONKE ARIYO

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted a commercial vehicle loaded with 942 explosives along Kaduna-Zaria expressway.

The Director, Media and Advocacy NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja said the vehicle was coming from Nasarawa and heading to Zamfara.

Babafemi said the explosives were concealed in a sack and the subsequent arrest of a 30-year-old suspect, Nura Muhammad.

He said the NDLEA Chairman, retired Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa, has directed that the suspect and exhibits be transferred to the appropriate security agency for further action.

Meanwhile, five members of a syndicate led by one Aminu Musa were arrested on Wednesday, April 30, by NDLEA operatives at Dangoro market, Kano with 50 blocks of skunk weighing 21.6kg recovered from them.

Also, in Edo state, operatives acting on intelligence on Thursday, May 1, intercepted at Uromi, Esan North-East, a white Toyota bus conveying assorted opioids from Onitsha to Auchi.

?Recovered from the vehicle include: 314,020 pills of tramadol, rophynol, diazepam, exol5; 638 bottles of codeine syrup and 200 ampoules of pentazocine injection.

?A suspect Dare Adeyemo was taken into custody,? Babafemi said.

Similarly, a Mazda commercial bus marked XA343TSE was intercepted at Agu-Awka junction, Awka, Anambra by NDLEA operatives on Wednesday.

Also, Babafemi said that a total of 50,400 capsules of tramadol, 500 tablets of co-codamol and 300 ampoules of pentazocine injection were recovered while a suspect Chinedu Eneh was arrested.

In Niger state, NDLEA officers on patrol along Kontagora -Mokwa road on Saturday intercepted a Mitsubishi canter truck marked RBH 104 ZY.

?A search of the vehicle led to the recovery of 5,500 capsules of tramadol and 2,300 ampoules of pentazocine injection as well as the arrest of a suspect Yusuf Abubakar, 30?.

Meanwhile, Babafemi said that after 10 months of painstaking investigation, NDLEA operatives had arrested a wanted drug kingpin, a 52-year-old Managing Director of Ovidaq International Ltd, Dominic Chiegozie Obijiaku.

He said that the suspect was arrested over his involvement in the importation of a consignment of 2,616,060 pills of tramadol 225mg intercepted by NDLEA at Apapa seaport in Lagos.

?A follow-up operation at his house in Lekki led to the seizure of 51 wraps of Canadian Loud weighing 34grams,? Babafemi said. (NAN)

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