Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have arrested a wanted 60-year-old drug kingpin, Okpara Paul Chigozie, ending seven years of evading the long arm of the law.

NDLEA said the suspect was caught attempting to ship large quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine to the Southeast and other parts of the country.

This was made known in a statement by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media & Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja.

Babafemi disclosed that Okpara, who has been on the wanted list of NDLEA since 2019, was eventually nabbed at his hideout at 72 Michael Ojo Street, Isheri in the Ojo area of Lagos State on Sunday last week following the interception of some of his consignments at Ilasamaja along Apapa-Oshodi expressway.

In the early morning operation, a team of NDLEA officers, acting on credible intelligence, arrested one of Okpara’s couriers, 51-year-old Achebe Kenneth Nnamdi, while heading to Onitsha, Anambra State, in a white Toyota Sienna vehicle.

The agency’s sniffer dogs were subsequently brought in to search the vehicle, after which 7.6 kilograms of cocaine and 900 grams of methamphetamine were found hidden in body compartments of the space bus.

A follow-up operation was promptly carried out at Okpara’s hideout in Isheri, where additional 1.8kg of cocaine and 1.3kg of methamphetamine were recovered from his residence.

At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos, NDLEA operatives, in a joint operation with Aviation Security personnel of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), on Wednesday, 16th July, recovered 7,790 pills of tramadol and rohypnol from the luggage of an Italy-bound passenger, Omoregie Nice Uyiosa.