NDLEA arrest drug lord in Lagos Hotel

On July 23, 2023, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) apprehended a notorious drug kingpin involved in trafficking Class A drugs to Europe, specifically Italy. The arrest took place in a hotel room located in Okota, Lagos, where the drug lord, Charles Uwagbale, was preparing one of his recruited couriers, Uju Dominic, to smuggle 93 pellets of cocaine into Italy.

The 48-year-old Uwagbale had orchestrated a deal with Uju Dominic, 35, to come to Nigeria, ingest 100 cocaine pellets on July 21, and then return to Italy on July 22. As planned, Uju arrived in Nigeria and was accommodated at the Golden Heaven Hotel on Enoma Street, Okota, Isolo, Lagos. It was here that Uwagbale provided him with 93 wraps of the Class A drug to swallow, intending to distribute them in Italy.

However, NDLEA’s operatives had been closely monitoring their activities based on credible intelligence. Late on Friday night, at approximately 23:45pm, the operatives raided their hotel room, successfully apprehending both the drug lord and the courier. In addition to the arrests, the agency seized the drug exhibits, which amounted to a total weight of 1.427 kilograms.