How Cobalt Int’l Services Inspection Led To NDLEA’s Raid Of Drug Warehouse In Lagos

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have busted a major warehouse in a secluded estate in the Ikorodu area of Lagos where 1.8 tons (1,855 kilograms) of cocaine were stored.

The cocaine seized from the warehouse is worth more than Two Hundred and Seventy-Eight Million Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ($278, 250,000) equivalent to about One Hundred and Ninety Four Billion, Seven Hundred and Seventy-Five Million (N194, 775,000,000) Naira in street value.

The raid was made possible after painstaking inspection by Cobalt International Services which inspected the warehouse in Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

P.M. EXPRESS gathered that the inspector detected some cocaine in one of the Shippers bags arranged to be shipped to South Africa, and reported immediately to the Drug enforcement agency “NDLEA” and they speed into action and busted the warehouse.

Four drug barons including a Jamaican and the warehouse manager have been arrested.

The kingpins of the cocaine cartel in custody include Messrs Soji Jibril, 69, an indigene of Ibadan, Oyo state; Emmanuel Chukwu, 65, who hails from Ekwulobia, Anambra state; Wasiu Akinade, 53, from Ibadan, Oyo state; Sunday Oguntelure, 53, from Okitipupa, Ondo state and Kelvin Smith, 42, a native of Kingston, Jamaica.

They are all members of an international drug syndicate that the NDLEA has been trailing since 2018.

According to Femi Babafemi, the Director of Media for NDLEA the warehouse is located at 6 Olukuola crescent, Solebo estate, Ikorodu.

Babafemi confirmed that the warehouse was raided on Sunday 18th September 2022, while the barons were picked from hotels and their hideouts in different parts of Lagos between Sunday night and Monday 19th September.

He said: “Preliminary investigation reveals that class A drugs were warehoused in the residential estate from where the cartel was trying to sell them to buyers in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world.

“They were stored in 10 travel bags and 13 drums.”