NDLEA ARRESTS 55 NIGERIAN DEPORTEES OVER DRUG-RELATED OFFENCES

LAGOS

The Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Command of the
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has apprehended 55
Nigerians deported from overseas' countries for drug-related offences
in the last six months.

The command also arrested 65 suspects, including the 12 paraded
yesterday, and 159.59kg of hard drugs and psycho tropic substances
during the same period.

Commander of the NDLEA at the airport, Alhaji Abdullahi Danburam, who
disclosed this at a briefing yesterday, said the arrest this year was
seven cases higher than the 48 arrests made of deported suspects
within the same period last year.

According to him, the 65 arrest made at the airport within the first
half of the year is 32% higher than the 44 made last year within the
same period.

Alhaji Danburam also said that the 159.58kg of hard drugs and psycho
tropic substances seized during the first half of the year is 38%
higher than last year's 97.648kg.

He blamed the increase in cases of hard drug peddling not only on
greed on the part of the traffickers, but also on their daring posture
lately.

Among the 12 paraded yesterday was a 26-year-old suspect (names
withheld), who was arrested at the MMIA on arrival from Karachi,
Pakistan, with 1.135kg of heroin.

The suspect reportedly developed complications while on observations,
as he could not excrete all the hard drugs ingested by him due to the
overdose of 25 capsules of Flagyl and some capsules of Tetracycline
allegedly administered on him by his sponsors. Pressed by newsmen to
explain why he had to subject himself to such life-threatening measure
to peddle drugs, the suspect simply said he had no comments to make.

The NDLEA boss told newsmen that the suspect had to be operated upon
in an hospital, at the point of death, to evacuate his system of the
overdose of drugs as well as the hard drugs he ingested for his life
to be saved.

The operation, Alhaji Danburam added, cost the NDLEA N120,000:00, and
regretted that suspects were making the agency's job difficult by
refusing to divulge reliable information that could lead to the arrest
of their sponsors.

Danburam said his agency was on the trail of such sponsors, adding
that its efforts were being complimented by government through
intensified international collaborations which, according to him, had
improved working tools from digital x-ray machines to
walkie-talkies.

The suspects, he added, would soon be charged to court.