The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have nabbed a drug syndicate operated by a Chinese man, 58-year-old Tianzhen Yen (alias Jackie).
The syndicates was dismantled by the NDLEA operatives following his arrest at his hotel in Ikeja area of Lagos State.
The Agency’s Spokesperson, Mr Femi Babafemi in a statement issued on Sunday said the suspects were arrested by the Officers of the Seme Special Area Command.
Babafemi said the Agency had on Thursday November 21, intercepted a 40-year-old suspect, Yakubu Emmanuel Mark in a commercial bus going to Ghana at the Gbaji checkpoint along Badagry-Seme expressway based on credible intelligence.
When he was searched, a total of 750grams of cocaine were found in his bag. A swift follow up operation was organized to trace and arrest the kingpin behind the trans-border drug trafficking syndicate, who turned out to be a Chinese citizen, Tianzhen Yen.
He was eventually traced to MC Hotel behind Alade market, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos. When his hotel room was searched, 4.3grams of cocaine; a gram of methamphetamine; two electronic weighing scales; and Chinese National Identification Number Card, among other exhibits were recovered while he was arrested in the vicinity of the hotel. Also at the Tincan seaport in Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Friday November 22, intercepted 92 parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis with a combined weight of 23.25kg concealed in two vehicles imported from Canada: a Nissan car and a GMC bus. The discovery was made during a joint examination of a container from Canada by NDLEA officers, men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and other stakeholders.While in Rivers state, NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports complex, Onne, on Thursday November 21, intercepted two containers of imported opioids during a joint examination with men of Customs Service and other security agencies.
A total of 168,000 bottles of codeine based syrup worth One Billion One Hundred and Seventy Six Million Naira (N1,176,000,000) only in street value, were recovered from one of the containers while the second one contains Four Million Five Hundred Thousand (4,500,000) pills of super royal tramadol 225mg valued at Three Billion One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (N3,150,000,000) only, bringing the combined value of both the codeine and tramadol consignments to Four Billion Three Hundred and Twenty Six Million Naira (N4,326,000,000) only.
