NDLEA arrests Lagos drug lord as mule about to swallow 93 cocaine wraps

<p>A notorious drug kingpin who specialised in sponsoring young Nigerians to traffic cocaine to Europe was recently caught redhanded when operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) stormed his hotel room in the Okota area of Lagos State late on Friday, July 21, as he was preparing a recruited courier to swallow 93 pellets of cocaine meant for distribution in Italy.</p>, <p>The 48-year-old 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, July 22.</p>, <p>Upon his arrival in Nigeria, the mule was lodged in the Golden Heaven Hotel, located at Enoma Street, off Ago-Palace Way, Okota, Isolo, Lagos.</p>, <p>Uwagbale had taken 93 wraps of the Class A drug to his room for him to swallow at about 23:45 pm on Friday.</p>, <p>The process was ongoing when NDLEA operatives, who had been on their trail following credible intelligence, stormed their hotel room.</p>, <p>The suspects were arrested, and the drug exhibit, weighing 1.427 kilograms, was recovered from them.</p>, <p>Similarly, operatives of the Lagos State Command of the Agency who made the arrest had earlier, on Thursday, July 20, raided the Akala neighbourhood of Mushin, where 37.5kg of cannabis was recovered from the home of a fleeing suspect.</p>, <p>The anti-narcotic agency also thwarted the effort to smuggle 98 cartons containing 5,122,900 pills of Tramadol 225mg, with an estimated street value of N3.7 billion, into Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.</p>, <p>The concealed consignment was discovered by officials of NDLEA and Nigeria Customs Service at the airport and 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 their final destinations.</p>, <p>In the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Bauchi State also recovered 6,265,080 pills