Officers of the NDLEA Seme Border Command intercepted 5,863 kg of compressed dried weeds that tested positive for cannabis in two operations in Badagry, Lagos State, on Friday.[1][2] The consignments had come from Ghana through the waterways.[3] The twin seizures happened within 48 hours: a first consignment of 3,525 kg in a clandestine warehouse, where a Ghanaian and two Nigerian women were arrested, and a second of 2,338 kg in a bus bound for distribution in Lagos, with one man arrested.[1][2][3] Four suspected traffickers were arrested in total, two vehicles were impounded, and the drugs were valued at N60 million.[1][2]
The warehouse suspects were 38-year-old Ghanaian fisherman Adoboe Nana Shelter from the Volta region and two 39-year-old Nigerian women, Falilat Sadiq and Mary Ige Joseph, who worked with him distributing the drug in Lagos; the bus suspect was Bola Adigun.[3] Shelter told officers that a friend introduced him to the hemp business for its profit and that this was his first arrest.[3] Seme commander Udotong Essien said the group specialised in moving compressed cannabis through the waterways and onward in yellow commercial buses to Lagos dealers, using women posing as traders.[1][2][3] NDLEA chairman Muhammad Abdallah called the seizures a sweet victory, said undercover officers had monitored the group, and said the agency would pursue forfeiture of the warehouse and vehicles and charge the suspects.[1][2][3]