Ten days after he was declared wanted, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have arrested a fleeing Lagos socialite and owner of Adekaz Hotels, Alhaji Ademola Afolabi Kazeem a.k.a Alhaji Abdallah Kazeem Muhammed, over offences bordering on exportation and trafficking of illicit drugs as well as money laundering.
Director, Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, said that on the 1st of November 2022, the Agency had declared the suspect wanted following his failure to honour NDLEA invitations and an order granted by a Federal High Court in Lagos.
Babafemi said: “The wanted drug kingpin was uncovered as the sponsor of some traffickers arrested by the anti-narcotics agency in their recent attempt to export cocaine to Dubai, UAE and other destinations outside Nigeria. The search for him however paid off on the 10th of November 2022 when he was successfully taken into custody where he is currently being interviewed. His lid was blown open after the arrest of one of his mules, Bolujoko Muyiwa Babalola, a Lagos BRT driver on 27th June at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja. Babalola named Alhaji Ademola Kazeem, alias Adekaz as the owner of the 900grams of cocaine he ingested.”
Babafemi stated that following Adekaz’s failure to honour invitations sent to him, the Agency approached a Federal High Court in Lagos with three prayers: to attach and seal his identified property in choice areas of Lagos Island and Ibadan; declare him wanted and block his bank account with a cash balance of N217million, all of which were granted.
