Okoro K., Abuja
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a wanted drug kingpin and Lagos socialite, 61-year-old Alhaja Aishat Feyisara Ajoke Elediye, on Wednesday, 1st January 2025, in her mansion in the Okota area of Lagos, following the interception of a truckload of illicit drug consignment from her staff the same day.
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The suspect, also known in the drug underworld as “Iya Ruka,” as she is fondly called in her social circle, has her true identity shrouded in mystery for years while she remained on the wanted list of NDLEA for leading one of the drug cartels operating from the Mushin area of Lagos.
The NDLEA said her lid was, however, blown off on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, when NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence intercepted a white Izuzu truck carrying 44 jumbo sacks containing 1,540 kilograms of imported cannabis and driven by one of her staff, 41-year-old Abideen Adio.
“Thereafter, the operatives stormed her hideout at 33 Adebayo Oyewole Street, off Ago Palace way, Okota, where they arrested her,” NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi said.
Babafemi further noted that on the surface, Alhaja Ajoke is a businesswoman who imports fabrics and shoes from China, but beneath is a massive illicit drug trade, as she is also recognised as the Iyalaje of Blessing Sisters, an influential club of society women in Lagos.
In another major operation, NDLEA officers arrested a US-trained Hollywood and Nollywood filmmaker, Emeka Emmanuel Mbadiwe, who is also a motivational speaker, at his Lekki Hotel room on Friday, December 27, 2024.
His arrest followed the earlier arrest of his partner, Uzoekwe Ugochukwu James, earlier the same day at a warehouse in Ajao Estate, Ikeja, where Mbadiwe sent him to collect a shipment of 33 parcels of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis weighing 17.30 kilograms, which arrived at the import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja, on December 24, 2024, from the United States on a Delta Airline flight, concealed in large wooden boxes.
Also, a fresh graduate, Khadijat Abdulraheem, 24, and a 20-year-old student of the University of Ilorin, Ayomide Morakinyo, were on Sunday, December 29, 2024, arrested by NDLEA operatives at Tanke-University of Ilorin Road, Oke Odo, Ilorin, based on credible intelligence that they were producing and selling drug-laced cupcakes to students in the community.
The NDLEA said when their apartment was searched, 42 pieces of drugged cakes were recovered from them.
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