NDLEA finds 320,000 tramadol capsules hidden in building materials, arrests 75-year-old suspect

• NDLEA intercepted a truck in Taraba State carrying more than 320,000 tramadol capsules hidden beneath building materials.

• A 22-year-old driver's assistant was arrested in connection with the seizure.

• The agency also arrested a 75-year-old suspect in Ebonyi and made multiple drug-related arrests across several states.

What appeared to be an ordinary truck transporting building materials from Onitsha to Jalingo was allegedly carrying something far more valuable to drug traffickers.

When NDLEA operatives stopped the vehicle at Nukkai Timber Shade in Jalingo, Taraba State on Saturday, a search of the cargo turned up one of the agency's largest single seizures in recent weeks: 320,840 tramadol capsules, 600 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 4,500 Rohypnol tablets and 299 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup, all concealed beneath the goods. 

The driver's assistant, 22-year-old Buhari Abdullahi, was arrested at the scene.

The Taraba interception was the headline moment from a week of nationwide operations that saw the NDLEA make arrests across at least six states, targeting drug networks ranging from large-scale trafficking to street-level retail.

Among the more unusual arrests was that of Okebe Samuel, a 75-year-old man picked up by operatives in Okposi, Ebonyi State. 

According to the NDLEA, Samuel was found with 300 grams of cannabis packaged in retail sachets and allegedly being sold to young people in the community. 

NDLEA Chairman Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa later used the arrest to reinforce the agency's position that no one is above its reach, regardless of age, gender or method of concealment.

In Imo State, a raid on a drug hotspot in Umulolo, Orlu, led to the arrest of 32-year-old Chioma Okeke with eight kilograms of cannabis.

In Edo State, separate operations across Benin City on June 2 resulted in four arrests. Three of those arrested were women, with seizures including cannabis, methamphetamine and a strain known as Scottish Loud recovered across different locations in the city.

In Kano, a 19-year-old suspect was caught with 38 kilograms of compressed cannabis in the Madobi area on June 4. In Gombe, another suspect was intercepted near Dantiti Plaza with 15,000 tramadol capsules.

The operations ran alongside the agency's ongoing school sensitisation campaign, which reached students across Oyo, Lagos, Anambra and Kano states during the same period, a dual approach Marwa described as balancing supply reduction with demand reduction.

Marwa commended the commands involved and said the agency would continue to pursue trafficking networks regardless of how creatively drugs were being moved.

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