Fugitive Drug Kingpin Surrenders to NDLEA after 13 Years

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NLDEA, has detained a suspected drug kingpin who has been on its wanted list for over thirteen years. NDLEA spokesman, FEMI BABAFEMI, said REGINALD PETER CHIDIEBERE was first arrested in 2013 following the seizure of large consignments of cocaine and heroin at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos. BABAFEMI disclosed in a statement that CHIDIEBERE was arrested for alleged shipment of cocaine into Nigeria, after which he was arraigned before Justice AYOKUNLE FAJI of the Federal High Court Lagos. However, the NDLEA spokesman said CHIDIEBERE later jumped bail and went into hiding after the trial judge granted him bail in 2013, and had since remained at large. He said in February 2024, the name of the drug kingpin featured prominently as one of the masterminds of the smuggling of forty-nine-point-seven kilograms of heroin from South Africa, which was intercepted by the NDLEA at the import shed of the Lagos airport.  The NDLEA spokesman said a follow-up operation was carried out on February 19, 2024 at his Golden Platinum Hotel & Suites, located on Reginald Peter Chidiebere Street, Hope Estate, Ago Palace Way, Okota, Lagos where an additional consignment of heroin was recovered from one of his guests, IGBUANUGO EBUKA THANKGOD. He said REGINALD PETER CHIDIEBERE went underground after the NDLEA secured an interim forfeiture order for his hotel and blocked all bank accounts traced to him since 2024. The spokesman said due to the restrictions to his funding sources, CHIDIEBERE could no longer sustain himself in hiding, prompting his surrender to the agency on February 13, 2026.