The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced the arrest of Nigerian billionaire, Chief Afam Mallinson Emmanuel Ukatu, Chairman of Mallinson Group.
The NDLEA Media Director, Femi Babafemi, said in a statement released on Monday that Chief Ukatu is behind the N3 billion Tramadol deal involving Abba Kyari, a suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP).
Ukatu was the drug baron behind the N3billion Tramadol deal involving the embattled Kyari-led Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
He was arrested at the MM2 terminal of the Lagos airport, Ikeja on Wednesday 13th April, 2022 after months of surveillance and evading arrest.
According to the NDLEA, he has been a major importer of large consignments of different brands and high dosages of Tramadol Hydrochloride, ranging from 120mg, 200mg, 225mg and 250mg.
The “billionaire drug baron” owned pharmaceutical and plastic manufacturing companies, which he allegedly used as a cover to import illicit drugs into Nigeria.
This was in addition to operating 103 bank accounts, most of which were used to launder money.
Ukatu came under watch in 2021 after he sent his staff to sell five cartons of Tramadol 225mg to undercover police officers under then Kyari-led IRT, in Lagos.
Each carton was negotiated at N17 million which was less than the black market value that ranged between N18million and N20million a carton.
After the arrest of Ukatu’s staff, Kyari’s men Pius Enidom and Sunday Ibekwete, were led to Mallinson’s warehouse at Ojota in Lagos where an additional 197 cartons of Tramadol 225mg were seized by the IRT.
The 202 cartons of Tramadol seized from Mallinson in one day were valued at over N3 billion.
Three weeks after the arrest, only 12 cartons with one truck and a suspect were transferred to the Lagos Command of the NDLEA by Kyari’s men, while 190 cartons went missing.
The anti-narcotics officers eventually arrested Ukatu after over eight months of following the lead.
Meanwhile, Kyari and four top members of the IRT team are facing trial for a different but similar offence at a Federal High Court in Abuja.
