NDLEA storms Edo forests, razes 317 tons Cannabis warehouses

• Published date: 21 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Barely hours after the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) vowed to make life tough for drug barons and cartels, operatives of the agency have dealt a lethal blow to a cluster of cannabis syndicates operating in the Opuje forests in Edo state.

Spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement said in a raid carried out by the operatives, massive warehouses and tents storing over 317,417 kilograms (317.4 metric tons) of the psychoactive substance were destroyed and set ablaze in a two-day operation.

He said a police impersonator, Omoruan Theophilus, 37, who conveys the drugs from the forests to the cities and three others: Aigberuan Jacob, 42; Ekeinde Anthony Zaza, 53, and Naomi Patience Ohiewere, 42, were arrested in connection with the drugs.

'The Opuje community in Owan West Local Government Area, Edo State, is notorious for cannabis cultivation, where the cartels invest huge resources, cutting down economic trees of the forest reserves and cultivating cannabis on a large scale, running into hundreds of hectares. After harvest, they build warehouses inside the forest reserves and employ the services of armed youths to protect the warehouses 24/7.

'Accessing the forest on Wednesday 18th January took hours of...