NDLEA intercepts cocaine being ferried to insurgents in North East

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Kogi State Command, today Friday July 17 made a major breakthrough as it intercepted substances suspected to be cocaine and other hard drugs allegedly being ferried to terrorists in the North Eastern part of the country.

Our Kogi State Correspondent learnt that the Eagle -eyed Operatives of the Command made the four different interceptions  and seizures in one day, beating  all the concealment tactics of the hardened carriers of the drugs in company of their drivers.

Parading the suspects before newsmen, the Kogi State Commandant of NDLEA, Mr. Alfred Adewumi, said within  a space of about five hours, his men on a motorized patrol  along Abuja- Lokoja Highway, were able to intercept and  seized the illicit drugs such as cocaine and cannabis sativa, all of which weighed  about 1,120.36 kg.

The NDLEA Boss, who took much time to dismantle  the cleverly concealed drugs before newsmen ,  said some of them  were packaged inside charcoal sacks  at the  back  of an open articulated vehicle, while some were neatly  concealed inside grains and  unsuspected areas inside the vehicles.

He said one the articulated vehicles in attempt to run away, hit and damaged one of the patrol vehicles and injured some of the Operatives, while an abandoned Blue Nissan car which fled into the bush after a hot chase, was seized.

While expressing displeasure over the rate of trafficking of illicit drugs in the state, he said between January and June this year, a total of 7,500 kg of assorted drugs  were intercepted  by his Command and raised concerns that most of illicit drugs may find their way to insurgents terrorizing the country in the North East.

The NDLEA boss while appealing to members of the public to give useful information that can lead to arrest of those dealing in illicit drugs in the State,  said his Command was more ready to put an end to the use of illicit drugs in the state.

 He gave the names of the suspects and the drivers arrested  for cannabis sativa as  Murtala Mohammed, Mohammed Bashir, Mohammed Sani, Ukasha Musa and Abba Mukhtar, while the name of the person arrested with  Cocaine was withheld for further investigation 

One of the suspects, Mohamed Bashir, who said he was selling the drugs in one of the  states in the North East, admitted committing the crime and pleaded for leniency.

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