Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA have stormed Opuje forests in Edo state where 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.
A police impersonator, Omoruan Theophilus, 37, who parades himself as a Police Inspector to convey the drugs from the forests to the cities and three others were arrested in the raid.
The other suspects are; Aigberuan Jacob, 42; Ekeinde Anthony Zaza, 53, and Naomi Patience Ohiewere, 42.
NDLEA spokesperson in a statement said the raid and arrest came barely hours after the chairman vowed to make life tough for drug barons and cartels in the new year.
According to him accessing the forest took hours of trekking by operatives who were ambushed by armed youths.
“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 trekking by hundreds of NDLEA operatives who were ambushed with bonfire by armed youths on their way out of the community the following day but were able to successfully leave the area without any casualty except the heavy investment losses inflicted on the cartels.”
