NDLEA officers on duty

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Borno command says it arrested 462 suspects for drug-related offences and convicted 11 in the year 2019.

Joseph Icha, Commander of NDLEA in the state disclosed this in a statement issued to newsmen on Tuesday in Maiduguri.

Icha said 64 of the cases were pending before the federal high court Maiduguri.

He explained that the suspects aged between 16 and 45 years, comprised of 439 men and 23 women.

He said that a total of 481.097 kilogrammes of various assorted illicit substances were seized from the suspects.

“The substances are made up of Cannabis sativa 327.204 kg, cocaine 448.7 grammes, heroin 250.72 grammes and psychotropic substances
100.637 kilogrammes.

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“Within the year under review the command arrested and charged to court some notorious barons in the state, while effort is ongoing to track down all drug dealers and distributors in the state,” he said.

Icha said that the command had deployed intelligence-led approaches in handling the control of the supply of illicit drugs.

He said that evidence-based preventive strategies in drug demand reduction were also being deployed to curb the drug menace.

According to him, the command had conducted drug abuse preventive education in secondary schools and tertiary institutions as well as sensitization campaigns to several IDP camps in the state within the year under review.

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He pointed out that through such efforts, 262 drug users were counselled within the period, while 14 persons were admitted into resident counselling, successfully treated and handed over to their families.

The Commandant lauded the Borno government for its unwavering support in the fight against drug abuse in the state.