How NDLEA Arrested Billionaire Drug Baron Linked to Kyari’s Team
- The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said they have arrested a drug baron that is linked to the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari's IRT team
- Afam Mallinson Emmanuel Ukatu who owns companies which he uses to launder and courier illicit drugs was nabbed on April 13, 2022 in Lagos
- Ukatu has been under the radar of NDLEA for about 8 months when he arrested at the Lagos airport
It has now emerged how the Inspector General of Police Response Team (IRT) led by suspended Deputy of Police, Abba Kyari seized hundreds of cartons of illicit Tramadol drug through a covert operation and accounted for just a few of them to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
According to the NDLEA’s release on Monday, April 25, the agency arrested Afam Mallinson Emmanuel Ukatu, a billionaire drug baron who was behind the N3 billion Tramadaol business linked to Kyari.
Source: UGC
Femi Babafemi, NDLEA’s Director, Media & Advocacy of the NDLEA.
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Babafemi said that the suspect is Mallinson Group of Companies was arrested after three months of surveillance and evading arrest, according to Nairametrics.
Hiding under retinue of companies
The NDLEA spokesman said the businessman was nabbed on board a flight at the MMA2 terminal of the Lagos airport Ikeja on April 13, 2022.
The statement said that findings show that the drug baron is a major importer of large shipments of different brands of high consignments of different versions of Tramadol Hydrochloride which range from 120mg to 2o0mg, 225mg and 250mg.
He owns pharmaceutical and plastic making companies which, according to the NDLEA, he uses as a cover to bring illicit drugs into Nigeria. He also owns about 103 bank accounts which he uses to launder money, according to the agency.
The Managing Director of Mallinson Group was under the NDLEA radar in 2021 after five cartons of Tramadol of 225mg were seized from his staff on May 4, 2021, when he sent them to sell to undercover police officers which are unknown to the billionaire drug baron from the IRT team led by Abba Kyari.
IRT allegedly seizes and keeps billions of naira worth of drugs
At the time, the cost of a carton of Tramadol was negotiated at N17 million each instead of the then black market value of N18 million in Lagos.
Ukatu’s men led the IRT team to a storage facility in the Ojota area of Lagos housing another 197 cartons of Tramadol 225 were seized by the team. The market value of the 202 cartons of Tramadol was taken from Ukatu in one day valued at over N3 billion.
According to Babafemi, three weeks after the seizure, just 12 cartoons of the seized Tramadol were transferred by the Kyari’s team NDLEA.
FIRS official who fraudulently received over N300 million in travel allowance gives up N104m property to court
Legit.ng has reported that Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC), has obtained an interim forfeiture of two properties worth about N104 million to court which belongs to Aminu Sidi Garunbaba who is a staff of the Federal Inland Revenue.
The EFCC, through its lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho brought an application in accordance with Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act of 2006.
The presiding judge, Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court, Abuja division granted the order on Wednesday, February 16, 2022, as he ruled on the application.
Source: Legit.ng
