A notorious drug kingpin who specialises in sponsoring young Nigerians to traffic Class A drugs to Europe, especially Italy, has been arrested after operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), stormed his hotel room in Okota area of Lagos State late on Friday, July 21, while he was preparing a recruited courier to swallow 93 pellets of cocaine meant for distribution in Italy.

The Agency’s Spokesperson, Mr Femi Babafemi, in a statement yesterday said the 48-year-old suspected drug kingpin, Charles Uwagbale, had recruited Uju Dominic, 35, from his base in Italy with a deal to come to Nigeria, ingest 100 pellets of cocaine on Friday, July 21, and return to Italy on Saturday, 22nd July. “True to plan, upon the arrival in Nigeria, the mule was lodged in Golden Heaven Hotel located at Enoma Street off Ago-Palace way, Okota, Isolo, Lagos where Uwagbale brought 93 wraps of the Class A drug for him to swallow at about 23:45pm Friday night. “They were in the process when NDLEA operatives who have been on their trail following credible intelligence stormed their hotel room, arrested both and recovered the drug exhibits with a total weight of 1.427 kilograms,” Babafemi said.

The NDLEA spokesperson added that operatives of the Lagos State Command of the Agency who made the arrest and seizure had on Thursday, July 20, raided Akala in Mushin area of the state where they recovered 37.5kg cannabis from the home of a fleeing suspect. Meanwhile, attempts to smuggle 98 cartons containing five million one hundred and twenty two thousand nine hundred (5, 122,900) pills of Tramadol 225mg with an estimated street value of about three billion seven hundred million naira (N3.7billion), into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, have been thwarted through the robust synergy between men of the Nigeria Customs Service and NDLEA officers at the airport as well as those at the DHL cargo warehouse.

Preliminary findings revealed that the consignments were imported from India and Pakistan, while some of the seized consignments had Freetown, Sierra Leone as final destination.

(New Telegraph)