NIGERIA NATIONAL DRUG LAW ENFORCMENT AGENCY (NDLEA) DETECTS

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