Three blind men operating an illicit drug ring between Lagos and Kano have been nabbed by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have been nabbed, while another blind member of the syndicate is on the run.
The Director of Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.
Babafemi said the lid was blown off the group following the arrest of a blind suspect, Adamu Hassan, 40, along Gwagwalada Expressway, Abuja with 12kg of skunk on his way from Lagos to Kano on October 28, 2023.
He said investigations however established that he was totally oblivious of the content of the bag handed to him to deliver in Kano.
Follow up operations then led to the arrest of the arrowhead of the syndicate, Bello Abubakar, 45, who is also blind.
In his statement, Bello, who is married with five children, said he has been living in Lagos for 30 years, but started the illicit drug business five years ago.
Another suspect, Muktar Abubakar, 59, who is equally blind, has been living in Lagos for 40 years and is married to three wives with 14 children.
Both Muktar Abubakar and Bello Abubakar are joint owners of the business, while the third suspect, Akilu Amadu, 25, also blind, equally contributes money to the criminal trade and was indeed the one who delivered the consignment to Adamu at the motor park in Lagos to deliver in Kano.
Another blind suspect who is the expected receiver of the consignment in Kano, Mallam Aminu, is currently at large.
While operatives in Osun State on November 4, 2023 stormed the Obada sawmill forest in Owena-Ijesa, Oriade Local Government Area, where they arrested a suspect, Monday Sylvester, 37, on a 6.01 hectares of cannabis farm, which was destroyed and 489.8kgs already processed plant recovered, their colleagues in Edo State raided a trans-loading point inside Avbiosi forest, Owan West LGA, where 603 kilograms of the illicit substance were seized.
Also, NDLEA officers in Ogun State on November 3, 2023 recovered a Toyota Sienna bus from a ditch at Ajebo Area along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
A search of the vehicle led to the seizure of 460kgs of the same substance, while a total of 116.5kgs of cannabis sativa belonging to a suspect at large were seized at Olagunju, Mushin area of Lagos.
