The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has offered details of how the suspended Head of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, offered its operatives $61,400 cash and negotiated the release of 25kg seized cocaine.
The agency, which earlier proclaimed the suspended police chief wanted, said its investigations revealed he is a kingpin of a drug cartel in the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug route.
Stated by NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, in a briefing on Monday, a sting operation exposed Kyari as running an illicit drug syndicate.
He said: “The saga started on Friday, January 21, 2022 when DCP Kyari initiated a call to one of the NDLEA officers in Abuja at 2:12 pm. When the officer returned the call two minutes later, Kyari informed him he was coming to see him to discuss an operational matter after the Juma’at service.
“He appeared at the agreed venue of the meeting with the officer and went straight to the crux of the matter. This was it: His team arrested some traffickers that came into the country from Ethiopia with, according to him, 25kg of cocaine.
“He proposed a drug deal whereby he and his team are to take 15kg of the cocaine and leave 10kg for the prosecution of the suspects arrested with the illicit drug in Enugu.
Babafemi in the meantime said that the abstracted cocaine was to be replaced with a dummy worth 15kg as initiated by Kyari and has asked the NDLEA officer to persuade men of the FCT Command to play along as well.
He went on: “By 11: 05 am on Monday, January 24, after the Agency gave the officer the green light to play along, he and Kyari began a WhatsApp call for the rest of the day. The officer conveyed “their” willingness to play the game.
