Femi Ashekun/
A wanted drug kingpin, 40-year-old Yussuf Abayomi Azeez, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) while preparing to travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah, the lesser Muslim pilgrimage.
NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said Azeez was intercepted at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, in the early hours of Thursday, November 6, after months of painstaking intelligence gathering and surveillance.
Azeez had earlier been arrested and charged in the United Kingdom for drug offences but jumped bail and fled to Nigeria.
Upon his return, he established a large clandestine laboratory in the Lekki area of Lagos for the production of Colorado, a potent synthetic strain of cannabis, along with other illicit substances.
After his arrest at the airport, NDLEA operatives took him to his residence and secret production site at 17 Vincent Eku Street, Ogombo, Lekki, which had been under close watch.
Officers from the agency’s Directorate of Forensic and Chemical Monitoring dismantled the illicit facility, recovering laboratory equipment, precursor chemicals, and processed drugs weighing 148.3 kilogrammes.
The suspect was apprehended alongside 43-year-old Abideen Kekere-Ekun, who was present at the time of the operation.
Both men are now in custody as investigations continue.
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