The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 300-level student, Rhoda Agboje and her boyfriend, Ifeanyi Nwankwo, in Abuja for allegedly selling cookies laced with drug to school children.
NDLEA’s director, Media and Advocacy, Mr Femi Babafemi, said this in a statement on Tuesday, both suspects specialised in producing and selling drug laced cookies to unsuspecting members of the public.
Babafemi said operatives of the agency in the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) had also launched a manhunt for another member of the syndicate involved in producing the cookies with Arizona.
He described the cookies as a highly psychoactive variant of cannabis, alcohol and rohypnol among other ingredients.
According to Babafemi, their lid was blown open following the arrest of Agboje with four pieces of the cookies on Sunday.
He explained that Agboje was arrested at a cooperative estate, opposite Gaduwa estate in Abuja based on complaint that she gave an unsuspecting young girl the cookies to eat.
“After eating the cookies, the girl lost her mind and could not sleep, making incoherent utterances due to the effects of the cookies.
“Under interrogation, the prime suspect, Rhoda, confessed she prepares the cookies with a friend and sells each pack of three pieces at N1, 500.
“A follow up operation in her boyfriend’s house led to the recovery of over 200 pieces of the drug cookies,” Babafemi said.
He said during investigation the suspect confessed she sold at parties and to unsuspecting members of the public, including school children that were most vulnerable.
He also said the suspect confessed she supplied some supermarkets and clubs in the FCT.
Meanwhile, NDLEA Chairman, retired Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa, has commended the operatives of the FCT command for busting the syndicate.
Marwa said what the syndicate was doing was not only criminal but equally “unconscionable by deliberately luring school children into drug under the cover of selling to them biscuits or cookies.
“I wish to draw the attention of parents to this new devious strategy to get children addicted to drug cookies and to urge them to remain vigilant while monitoring what their wards bring home from school or consume as snack.” (NAN)
