Wanted former-beauty queen arrested as NDLEA seizes N17.9bn worth of drugs in Lagos, Rivers

A wanted former beauty queen, Oluwadamilola Aderinoye has been arrested National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) seized N17.9bn worth of drugs in Lagos, Rivers, and others.

The agency accused the ex-beauty queen who was the Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture in 2015/2016 of hiding after she was declared wanted eight months ago.

A statement on Sunday by the agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, noted that Aderinoye was declared wanted after she escaped when operatives raided her apartment in Lekki on January 24, 2024.

Babafemi stated that 606 grammes of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, large quantities of drugs packing plastics, a black RAV 4 SUV marked Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and her picture frame, among others, were recovered from her apartment.

Babafemi said, “Wanted ex-beauty queen, Ms. Aderinoye Queen Christmas, also known as Ms. Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, has surrendered to the Lagos Command of the agency after about eight months in hiding.

“She was declared wanted by the agency in January after she escaped from her Lekki, Lagos residence when NDLEA operatives raided her apartment at the Oral 3state, Lekki, on Wednesday, January 24, following credible intelligence that she deals in illicit substances.

“The suspect was Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and the founder of Queen Christmas Foundation. Recovered from her home during the search witnessed by the estate officials include 606 gramm3s of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, large quantities of drugs packing plastics, a black RAV 4 SUV marked Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and her picture frame among others.

“The suspect, who claimed she had been hiding in Akure, Ondo State since January when she escaped arrest in Lekki Lagos however, surrendered to the agency on Wednesday, August 28.“

Babafemi said operatives of the agency intercepted a total of 31,124, 600 pills of tramadol 225mg and bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over N17, 932, 200, 000.00 in street value at the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers state and Tincan seaport in Lagos.

“The seizures were made following intelligence processed by the qgency on the movement of the shipments from their port of origin in India, leading to a demand for a 100 per cent joint examination of the watch-listed containers with the Nigerian Customs Service and other sister security agencies, “ he added.

According to him, the breakdown of the seizures showed that 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers at Tincan port in Lagos on August 29 and 30, 2024.

“Each of the two containers had 175,000 bottles of the opioid.

“At the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, NDLEA operatives equally intercepted a total of 447 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing 29 840,000 pills of the opioid as well as 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers on Thursday, August 29. The tramadol shipments came under different brand names such as Royal Tapetadol, Carisoprodol 225mg and Royal Tramadol Hydrochloride 225mg,” the statement added.

The following day, Babafemi said another set of three containers watch-listed by NDLEA were subjected to joint examination.

He added that at the end of the exercise, a total of 3,030 cartons of codeine syrup containing 554,600 bottles of the opioid were recovered from them.

“This brings the total bottles of codeine seized at Onne, Rivers and Tincan in Lagos to 1,284,600 bottles worth N8,992,200,000.00 in street value while the combined seizure of tramadol stood at 29, 840,000 pills valued at N8,940,000,000.00”, he added.

Similarly, he noted that NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State, on August 27 arrested a suspect, Eze Emekan Don, while attempting to board a Cronos airline flight to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, with 1,490 pills of tramadol concealed and packaged as cosmetics of different brands inside his luggage.

Also in Lagos, Babafemi said no less than 1,122 kilograms of cannabis were seized from a suspect, Mustapha Ibrahim when he was arrested on August 26 along Orchid Road, Ajah, Lagos, adding, “While 816kg of the same psychoactive substance belonging to a suspect at large was recovered from the same location the same day.”

In Niger State, he said NDLEA operatives on August 26 arrested a suspect, Friday Gabriel, along Minna-Suleja road while conveying 1,900 capsules of tramadol, 300 bottles of codeine syrup and 600 packets of exol-5 tablets.

“Similarly, operatives in Bauchi state on Saturday, 31st August, arrested two suspects: Garba Muhammed, 35, and Usman Yakubu Shehu, 31, along Bauchi-Gombe road while transporting 308 blocks of cannabis weighing 246.4kg, concealed in a false compartment of a J5 bus marked Edo state URM 38 ZY,” he stated.