Traffickers Now Use Giant Music Speakers to Smuggle Illicit Drugs—NDLEA
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Sunday said as the fight against drug trafficking intensifies, traffickers now use giant music speakers to move illicit drugs around the country.
This is as the operatives announced the arrest of multiple suspects and the seizure of large quantities of hard drugs in coordinated operations across Adamawa, Cross River, the Federal Capital Territory, Kano, and Niger State.
The operations, which took place between Monday, April 7 and Friday, April 11, 2025, also coincided with the agency’s nationwide War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign, aimed at reducing drug demand through sensitisation and advocacy.
The NDLEA operatives at a checkpoint in Namtari, along Ngurore–Yola Road in Adamawa State, on Monday, April 7, arrested a 41-year-old ex-convict and Malaysian returnee, Ndubuisi Udatu, also known as Richard, who “concealed four parcels of methamphetamine weighing 2.7 kilograms inside two giant music speakers”.
The illegal consignment, hidden in new speakers and accompanied by a cash exhibit of N22,300, was intended for distribution in Yola, Mubi, and across the border into Cameroon.
In his statement, Udatu claimed, “he returned to Nigeria to continue his illicit drug trade after serving out his jail term in Malaysia where he had been arrested, convicted and sent to prison for drug trafficking offences.”
On the same day, NDLEA officers on routine patrol intercepted a consignment of 8,960 pills of tramadol along Gwagwalada Expressway in the Federal Capital Territory.
This further led to the arrest of 48-year-old Gambo Lawan during a follow-up operation at Wazobia Motor Park, Gwagwalada.
Subsequently, in a joint border operation with Customs personnel at the Nigeria-Cameroon border in Mfum, Cross River State, the agency arrested a 35-year-old trans-border drug trafficker, Odoh Peter Ikechukwu.
Ikechukeu was found with 8,740 ampoules of assorted opioids weighing 395 kilograms.
The breakdown includes 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, and 330 ampoules of midazolam injection.
On Friday, April 11, NDLEA operatives in the Bachirawa area of Kano State arrested 27-year-old Aliyu Ibrahim with 25,600 pills of tramadol (225mg and 250mg) and 20 ATM cards, suggesting possible links between drug trafficking and financial crimes.
That same day, along the Mokwa–Jebba Road in Niger State, officers intercepted a Lexus vehicle marked KTU 54 CU and driven by 58-year-old Ademiluyi Adedapo Collins. A search of the car’s boot revealed 124 kilograms of skunk, a high-grade strain of cannabis, packaged in 11 jumbo bags.
Recall THE WHISTLER had reported the destruction of approximately 1.6 million kilograms of assorted illicit drugs seized from Lagos, Ogun, and Oyo states.
The public destruction, conducted at an isolated location in Ipara, along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway in Ogun State, marks the largest volume of drug seizures to be incinerated at once in the agency’s history.
Weighing on the agency’s achievement, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), tasked the officers to raise the bar in their offensive action against drug cartels with an equal measure of drug demand reduction efforts, the statement by the NDLEA Director, Media & Advocacy, Femi Babafemi said.
Traffickers Now Use Giant Music Speakers to Smuggle Illicit Drugs—NDLEA is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
