THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two more members of a drugs cartel that operates at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos. This brings to five the number of such detainees.Three members of the gang were arrested on May 1, 2009 at the point of trying to smuggle two bags of cannabis (Indian hemp) at night through the conveyor belt. Chairman of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, disclosed this yesterday while laying the agency's strategies to the worrying influx of drugs into the country and the sabotaging of its fight against narcotics.Murtala Mahammed International AirportGiade reiterated his determination to deal decisively with the members of a notorious drug cartel whose members specialises in smuggling luggage into aircraft to avoid being detected by security operatives.Describing members of the cartel as national saboteurs, the NDLEA boss said that the agency would not rest until everyone involved in the criminal act was brought to book. He urged Nigerians to remain vigilant and continue to support the agency. "Drug barons have no respect for authority and human life. We must, therefore, be vigilant and resist their antics. When they weirdly evaded serving their jail terms after conviction, the Agency uncovered it."They resorted to blackmail, they failed. Now, they have devised a new strategy of smuggling un-searched bags into aircraft. We are poised to stop their next stratagem," Giade vowed.He added that the anti-narcotic agency had a responsibility to protect the country from the hands of drug barons.He alleged that a gang made up of some workers of OTIS, a firm that maintains conveyor belt at the Lagos airport, smuggled bags containing drugs at night.Disclosing their modus operandi, Giade said: "They will then check-in dummy bags during screening and use the tags of the dummy for the ones containing drugs.Two additional suspects were arrested on May 15, 2009. They are Madu Sunday Emeka, 31, who claimed to be a trader and Okpo Richard, 28, a former staff of Nigerian Aviation Handling Company. In all, five members of the cartel have been apprehended."He stated that, "the obnoxious activities of the cartel was detected on May 1, 2009 when the anti-narcotic body observed that some conveyor belt technicians hid two bags containing dried weeds suspected to be cannabis (Indian hemp) weighing 48 kilogrammes in the conveyor belt at night."Their plan was to tag the bags with the tags of two dummy luggage containing yams, which were checked in by a member of their syndicate."Three members of the group - Hammed Oyesanya Olaniyi, 32, Dosunmu Abiodun Yusuf, 34, and Stephen Adebowale, 33 - were nabbed immediately by the NDLEA officers at the Lagos airport.They have made confessional statements on how they hid the bags the previous night and tagged them the following day.
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