Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have intercepted container consignments of Loud and codeine-based syrup worth over N5 billion at Apapa, Tincan Island and Onne seaports.
The Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, said the seizures followed months of intelligence and tracking of the shipments from their ports of origin.
Babafemi said at Apapa Port in Lagos, officers on Saturday, September 3, examined two containers from Bangkok, Thailand, and recovered 161 parcels of Thai Loud weighing 124kg, worth N372 million, concealed in two refrigerators and two cartons.
At Onne Port in Rivers State, he said two watch-listed containers were jointly examined, during which 40 packs of Loud weighing 22kg were found hidden in a travelling bag and three vehicles – Toyota Matrix, Corolla and Hyundai Elantra.
The second container held 109,600 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup weighing 16,440kg. The container had left India to Saudi Arabia where its origin history was deleted to avoid being targeted. Both consignments have a combined street value of N833.2 million.
At Tincan Island Port, operatives on September 29 examined a watch-listed container from Montreal, Canada, and recovered 2,595 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 1,297.5kg, concealed in a Toyota Sienna and Hyundai Elantra with 24 blue drums and six jumbo bags. The consignment was worth over N3.8 billion.
In Osun State, NDLEA operatives on September 30 destroyed 20,234 kilograms of skunk on 8.0936 hectares of cannabis farm in Area 4, Ife South LGA, while a suspect, Agbo Dennis, 41, was arrested on September 29 at West of Mines, Jos North, Plateau State with 33 bags of skunk weighing 385kg.
In Lagos, 209,000 tablets of tramadol were recovered on September 28 from an unoccupied compound at Divine Estate, Ago Palace, while 23-year-old Ekundayo Taiwo was arrested on September 30 at Ladipo Spare Parts Market after 61 grams of Colorado and 24 grams of methamphetamine were found hidden in an energy drink bottle as a waybill package from a bus driver along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
In Kogi, officers on patrol along Okene-Lokoja highway on September 30 intercepted a Lagos-Abuja bus and found two sachets of methamphetamine weighing 1kg as waybill, leading to arrest of the owner, Michael Chukwuememka Uzoma, 29, at Utako, Abuja.
In Edo, the residence of Saturday Omimi, 35, was raided at Uyere community, Ovia North-East LGA on October 2 where 32.2kg of cannabis was recovered, while Osazuwa Iyabor Michael, 23, was arrested at Auchi Bypass with 59 grams of Loud, 12 grams of Colorado, and other drugs.
Babafemi added that a 47-year-old fugitive, Idris Mohammed Kurra, who jumped bail in December 2020 while facing trial at Federal High Court, Jos for dealing in 198kg of skunk, was arrested on September 29.
The NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), commended the operatives and urged them to sustain the onslaught against drug trafficking networks.