NDLEA Nabs Two Drug Kingpins, Intercepts About 13.000 Tramadol Pills In Kogi State

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA on  patrol  along Kabba-Obajana highway in Kogi state have intercepted a consignment of 12,800 pills of Tramadol 250mg going to Shuwarin in Jigawa state, 

In a statement by NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi says officers also arrested a suspect, Salisu Basiru, 

Similarly, no fewer than 65 parcels of Colorado, a strong synthetic strain of cannabis with a total weight of 1.600kg also heading to Jigawa state, were recovered from another suspect, Rufai Hassan, at the same check point same day.

The statement also that attempts by two drug kingpins to smuggle into Nigeria consignments of heroin through the Port Harcourt International Airport and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, have been foiled by NDLEA operatives.

One of the kingpins who uses dual identities to aid his cross border movements, has a Nigerian passport with his original name: Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus, and that of Sierra Leone with a different name: Kargbo Mohamed Foday. 

He was intercepted by NDLEA officers with his Sierra Leonean passport at the Port Harcourt airport, Rivers state during the inward clearance of passengers through Abuja to Port Harcourt.

According to the statement, ”One of the kingpins who uses dual identities to aid his cross border movements, has a Nigerian passport with his original name: Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus, 30, and that of Sierra Leone with a different name: Kargbo Mohamed Foday. He was intercepted by NDLEA officers with his Sierra Leonean passport on Sunday 2nd February 2025 at the Port Harcourt airport, Rivers state during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight from Doha through Abuja to Port Harcourt.

He was subsequently taken for body scan which confirmed he ingested illicit drugs and thereafter placed under excretion observation during which he expelled a total of 62 wraps of heroin in five excretions, weighing 1.348 kilograms.

Investigation reveals Onyekwonike Elochuckwu Sylvanus (alias Kargbo Mohamed Foday) alternates his two identities for different drug trafficking missions between Thailand, Pakistan, Iran and West African countries.

He claimed to have gone full time into the illicit drug trade in 2017 when his clothing and shoe business went down.

The second kingpin, James Herbert Chinoso, 48, was arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Saturday 1st February upon his arrival from Madagascar via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on an Ethiopian Airlines flight. After a body scan confirmed illicit drug in his system, he was placed under excretion observation during which he egested 63 wraps of heroin with a total weight of 909 grams.

Chinoso had left Lagos to Madagascar on 26th January 2025 and returned via Addis Ababa after spending a week. He claimed to have gone into the criminal trade after his phone accessories business in Liberia collapsed.

Two parcels of 2.82 kilograms of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis imported from the United States with Lagos as destination were equally intercepted by NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, DOGI, at a courier firm in Lagos on Thursday 6th February. In another interdiction operation same day but in a different logistics company in Lagos, anti-narcotics officers intercepted 80 ampoules of pentazocine injection 225grams concealed in cartons heading to Canada.

PR