VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHUJA #1103 1700626
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 190626Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
INFO RUEHOS/AMCONSUL LAGOS 1531
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6344

UNCLAS ABUJA 001103 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL/AAE; BAGHDAD FOR DMCCULLOUGH 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SNAR KCRM ASEC EAID NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA NATIONAL DRUG LAW ENFORCMENT AGENCY (NDLEA) DETECTS 
DRUG TRAFFICKING RING IN LAGOS. 
 
REF: ABUJA 00980 
¶1. (U) The Mission confirms reports in local newspapers that, since 
May 1, 2009, the Nigerian National Drug Law Enforcement Agency 
(NDLEA) has arrested 5 members of a drug trafficking ring that was 
operating out of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) 
in Lagos. NDLEA Director General Lanre Ipinmisho informed INL that 
the members of the ring are all employees of the OTIS conveyor belt 
company and were smuggling unsearched luggage onto aircrafts at 
night to avoid being detected. 
¶2. (SBU) Ipinmisho explained that the members of the ring are 
conveyor belt technicians who would take tags from bags of produce 
that had passed a security check and place them on bags that 
contained dried weeds that have been confirmed to be cannabis. He 
added that the men would then send the bags down the conveyor belt 
where they would be loaded onto the aircraft. NDLEA seized two bags 
of cannabis on the conveyor belt on May 15, 2009 weighing 48 kg. He 
disclosed that NDLEA has surveillance teams at the airport who are 
working undercover to identify all the members of the ring in an 
effort to track down the leaders of the cartel referred to locally 
as drug barons. 
¶3. (SBU) Ipinmisho indicated that NDLEA requires USG assistance in 
developing its capacity to conduct long term surveillance and 
undercover operations in order to detect and dismantle drug 
trafficking organizations and their financial institutions. He 
acknowledged that NDLEA has had a difficult time tracking the 
activities of low level traffickers to major dealers generally 
because it has no centralized database for storing case information 
and perform link analysis between different components of drug 
trafficking networks. In addition, there are no national 
identification databases to crosscheck names of suspects.(NOTE: The 
Mission has been exploring ways to expand NDLEA's IT and data 
sharing capacity by deploying case management and intelligence 
analysis tools developed by the United Nation's Office on Drugs and 
Crime. END NOTE) 
¶4. (U) Ipinmisho noted that NDLEA's efforts to successfully 
prosecute and extradite drug barons, would require a fundamental 
reform of the legal framework to remove delay tactics by defense 
attorneys such as interminable interlocutory appeals and a change in 
the culture of impunity in Nigeria that will not allow the 
prosecution and extradition of politically influential persons such 
as wealthy drug barons. He explained that even when a conviction is 
obtained traffickers need only pay a fine in lieu of incarceration 
which is tantamount to a simple cost of doing business. He stated 
that a minimum sentence of at least three years if not more should 
be established. He expressed NDLEA's desire to target the assets of 
traffickers. In fact, in the last quarter of 2008 and first quarter 
of 2009, NDLEA investigated 15 drug-related money laundering cases. 
Assets worth over $2.6 Million USD were identified and confiscated 
pending final forfeiture proceedings. 
 
¶5. (U) Ipinmisho reported that, again on May 15, 2009, as part of 
its surveillance operations at MMIA, NDLEA re-arrested a suspect who 
had previously been convicted of drug trafficking, and jailed for 5 
months but who, after his release from prison, was apprehended with 
a USG-donated body scanner while attempting to board a flight to 
Frankfurt, Germany. He was found to have ingested 1.9kg of cocaine. 
Ipinmisho stated that NDLEA is investigating how the suspect 
obtained a new passport and visa since new legislation prohibits 
convicted drug traffickers from receiving passports and visas in an 
effort to prevent their travel. 
¶6. (SBU) The Mission notes that although NDLEA faces a myriad of 
obstacles from legal, political and bureaucratic impediments to 
corruption, it has been very cooperative with USG counterpart 
agencies and has been very successful at detecting and disrupting 
drug trafficking rings (although no major drug barons have been 
arrested) through interdiction efforts at the international airports 
where USG has focused a significant amount of U.S. counter-narcotics 
assistance. The Mission believes that NDLEA's performance on 
investigating, arresting, disrupting and dismantling major drug 
trafficking organizations will benefit from capacity building 
opportunities available through mentoring and training from the U.S. 
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).  Nigeria's Minister of Justice has 
recently agreed to the assignment of a DEA Technical Advisor to 
NDLEA for this purpose. The Mission is making arrangements to deploy 
a 6 month TDY Narcotics Advisor to the NDLEA (reftel). 
 
SANDERS