An Ikoyi businessman and the manager of a Lekki-based artist who specializes in selling illegal substances to revelers at upscale nightclubs and lounges in the Lekki and other parts of Lagos Island have both been taken into custody by NDLEA agents.
Their detentions were the result of an investigation by the intelligence community into a shipment of Colorado, a potent synthetic cannabis strain from Los Angeles, California.
The NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, announced the development in a statement on Sunday July 23. He noted that when the consignment arrived on Sunday, Oseni Babatunde (also known as Papalampa) was the first person to be detained in his home at No. 3 Ope Daniel Taiwo Street, off Chisco Bus-Stop, in the Lekki neighborhood of Lagos.
The suspect admitted to starting the illegal business three years ago and selling to customers in clubs and bars in Lekki and Lagos Island, some of which he named as Quilox, Silver Fox, DNA, and Hotbox, during a preliminary interview, Babafemi added.
He observed that Oseni had also disclosed that, in addition to his involvement in the drug trade, he also organized performances for artists both inside and outside of Nigeria.
At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, NDLEA agents seized a total of 10 packages containing 2.50kg of Colorado that were hidden within huge coffee canisters and duvets connected to Oseni.
Agents found further quantities of the same material, a digital weighing scale, and other items during a subsequent search of his home.
Additionally, the package was traced to his accomplice, an Ikoyi-based businessman named Nnadi Ikenna, who was away in South Africa at the time.
“As operatives kept watch over his Ikoyi, Lagos, home at 18 Okotie Eboh Close, they also set up a dragnet for him at the airport.
“On Thursday, July 27, when he landed back in the nation on a Kenya Airline trip at the Lagos airport, he finally found himself in the waiting arms of the NDLEA officials. Ikenna acknowledged ownership of a portion of the consignment in his statement, Babafemi continued.
He added that two people, Boniface Ogwurlobi, 62, and Chimezie Onyenjuru, were detained with a total of 49.415 kilograms of cannabis sativa, 127.7 grams of methamphetamine, and 15 grams of cocaine during a raid by NDLEA agents on Friday, July 28.