NDLEA storms Edo forests, razes 317-ton cannabis warehouses, arrests 4

Barely hours after the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), vowed to make life tough for drug barons and cartels in the new year if they fail to back out of the illicit trade, operatives of the agency have dealt a lethal blow to a cluster of cannabis syndicates operating in the Opuje forests in Edo State where massive warehouses and tents storing over 317,417 kilograms (317.4 metric tons) of the psychoactive substance were destroyed and set ablaze in a two-day operation.

At least, a police impersonator, Omoruan Theophilus, 37, who paraded as a Police Inspector to convey the drugs from the forests to the cities and three others, Aigberuan Jacob, 42; Ekeinde Anthony Zaza, 53, and Naomi Patience Ohiewere, 42, were arrested in connection with the drugs.

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The Opuje community in Owan West Local Government Area, Edo State is notorious for cannabis cultivation, where cartels invest huge resources, cutting down economic trees of the forest reserves and cultivating cannabis on a large scale, running into hundreds of hectares. After harvest, they build warehouses inside the forest reserves and employ the services of armed youths to protect the warehouses 24/7.

Accessing the forest on Wednesday, January 18, took hours of trekking by hundreds of NDLEA operatives who were ambushed with bonfire by armed youths on their way out of the community the following day but were able to successfully leave the area without any casualty except the heavy investment losses inflicted on the cartels.

In the same vein, the agency, on Thursday, January 19, through intelligence received from the Drug Enforcement Administration of the United States, busted a criminal syndicate involved in the trafficking of fake USD currency in Lagos. During a combined operation carried out by NDLEA operatives with their EFCC colleagues, a total of $269,000 counterfeit US dollars were recovered from the syndicate at Oniru Shoprite area of Lekki, Lagos, where three suspects were arrested.

While commending the officers involved in the two special operations in Edo and Lagos for their professionalism and commitment,  Marwa has since directed that the fake dollars recovered and suspects arrested in the Lekki operation be immediately transferred to the EFCC for possible prosecution.