Three drug lords and 16 others sentenced to 302 years in prison for drug trafficking — Nigeria — The Guardian Nigeria News – News from Nigeria and the world

Three drug lords and 16 other perpetrators were found guilty and sentenced to 302 years in prison.

The suspects were arrested for trafficking in illegal drugs including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis and opioids and prosecuted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The 19 convicts top the list of 414 drug traffickers and dealers convicted by the Federal High Court in Benue, Bauchi, Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Gombe and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) between July 1 and July 31, 2024, on the basis of charges filed against them by the anti-drugs agency.

One of the masterminds, 50-year-old Bolanle Lookman Dauda, ​​​​was arrested on Saturday, May 25, 2024, in a raid by members of a special unit of the NDLEA in Ibiye along the Lagos-Badagry expressway while attempting to cross the land border to deliver the shipment in Ghana.

At the time of his arrest, 42 blocks of cocaine weighing 47.5 kg were found on him.

A follow-up operation at his residence at Plot 24/25 OPIC Extension, Petedo Road, Agbara, Ogun State, recovered another eight blocks of the same drug weighing 10kg, bringing the total weight to 57.5kg.

He was subsequently arraigned before Justice Ambrose Allagoa of the Federal High Court in Lagos under charge number FHC/L/537C/2024. In his judgment delivered on July 19, Justice Allagoa sentenced him to 21 years imprisonment or pay a fine of 30 million naira.

Another drug lord who was arrested is 34-year-old Ikeh Stanley Ifeanyi. He was arrested at Idumota Market on Lagos Island, where he was found in possession of no less than 1,100 vials of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, weighing 6,480 kg.

The dangerous opioid is 100 times more potent than heroin and is currently responsible for over 70 percent of all overdose deaths. It is also a leading cause of fatal and non-fatal overdoses in the United States.

He was later arraigned before Justice Kehinde Ogundare of the Federal High Court, Lagos under charge number FHC/L/433C/2024.

In sentencing on July 4, the trial judge found Ifeanyi guilty on both counts and sentenced him to 14 years in prison or an optional fine of 2 million naira.