By Mohammed Abubakar Dutse
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Jigawa State Command have confiscated assorted controlled drugs worth over N 2.6 billion, arresting three suspects and two motor vehicles.
Parading the suspects at the Commands headquarters in Dutse on Monday, the State Commander of the Agency, Mr. Musa Maina said the successful arrest followed a three-day sting operations, lasting three days, covering both Jigawa and the neighbouring state of Kano, from where the suspects acquired the drugs.
He identified the suspects as Jamilu Muhammad, 41, Abba Ibrahim, 28 and Shuaibu Umar, 29 all residents of Kano state. He gave the breakdown of the drugs as 118.6 ton of Tramadol tablets and 195.3 kg of Pregabalin Capsule.
Confiscated along side the suspects and their consignments, were the two vehicles used on transporting the drugs, including a Toyota Sienna and an 18-seater Hummer bus.
According to Maina, the latest arrest and seizure remains the biggest achievements yet by the state command of the agency in combating drug trafficking in the state.
He said, “This is an operation we’ve been planning for in the long time and it so happened that the movement of the consignments is to take place, but our intelligence revealed that this has been happening and we’ve been on the trail starting from Tuesday April 22 and Wednesday 23rd.
“We luckily intercepted the first vehicle, a Sienna SUV conveying a consignment of Tramadol tablets and Pregabalin Capsule from Kano with the intent its destination, where the receivers are already awaiting them to receive the drugs at a location called Kwanar Dole along Maigatari-Birniwa road in Jigawa state. But we confiscated the vehicle just before the entrance to Gumel town around 2:00 am on Thursday April 24.
This first vehicle we intercepted was conveying 120 kg of Tramadol as well as 193.3 kg of Pregabalin Capsule which are concealed I. boxes. Further to this, we felt there was the need for a follow up operation inorder to get to the source of the supply and upon interrogation we were told where these supplies were coming from.
“And in collaboration with our counterparts from Kano, we were able to locate a particular resident at Male Tara in Ungogo LGA where we also recovered an 18- seater Hummer bus fully loaded with cartons of Tramadol in a room. Inside the house was also a stacked cartons of Tramadol.
“The investing team also met another person who belongs to the cartel in the house.”
Maina noted while Kwanar Dole was the point of delivery of the drugs, investigations had shown that upon arrival of the destination, the drugs would be distributed to other towns in Jigawa, towns in the nearby Yobe state such as Nguru, Machina and Gashua and other surrounding towns of Bauchi and up to Niger Republic.
The Commander, however, noted that the suspects are still undergoing further investigations to unravel those behind the large scale drug trafficking along the various routes in Jigawa state
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