The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) intercepted multiple drug trafficking attempts into and out of Nigeria, uncovering drugs concealed in wooden sofas, detergent packs, cartons of snacks and female headwear.
In a statement on Sunday, Femi Babafemi, the agency’s spokesperson, said that during an interception at the Lagos airport, 750,000 tablets of Tapentadol 250mg, weighing 526 kilogrammes and worth N900 million, were recovered from Ahmedabad, India, in a consignment declared as Paracetamol Tablets 500mg.
The consignment, made up of eleven cartons packed in two wooden structures, arrived at the airport’s import shed on Tuesday aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight from India.
“Suspicious of the declaration, NDLEA officers placed the cargo under surveillance until a joint examination with officers of the Nigeria Customs Service and sister agencies on Friday, where opioid pills were found in ten of the eleven cartons, while only the last carton contained paracetamol tablets as cover,” he said.
In another operation at the import shed of the same airport, agency officers on Wednesday seized 32 parcels of Loud, a strain of cannabis, weighing 16.15 kilograms.
The drugs were hidden inside two wooden sofas in consolidated cargo that arrived from Houston, Texas, in the United States aboard a Turkish Airlines flight.
A freight agent, Ibrahim Abdulwaheed Adewale, who came to clear the consignment, was arrested.
In a follow-up operation on Friday, a 34-year-old caterer from Ibadan, Adeoye Ojo, walked in to collect the package and was arrested. Mr Adeoye claimed a friend, Taiwo Olusegun, sent him.
The officers at the same airport also smashed a syndicate importing chemicals used to produce Colorado, a synthetic cannabis, from the United Kingdom.
It was exposed after operatives uncovered nine parcels of illicit substance hidden in two cartons of snacks labelled “Michael Tea Guy”.
The carton arrived in consolidated cargo aboard an Air Peace flight from the UK on Friday, October 23.
Two of the parcels contained 1.20 kilograms of cannabis, while forensic analysis of the other seven parcels confirmed them to be chemicals used in making synthetic cannabis.
A 51-year-old freight agent, Afolabi Abiodun Wale, who came to clear the consignment, was arrested, while two more cartons for the same recipient later arrived from the UK aboard an Allied Air flight.
An undercover operation conducted between Monday, October 26, and Wednesday, October 28, led to the arrest of Okwuite Benjamin Ojone, 51, when he took delivery of the four cartons.
At courier companies in Lagos, agency operatives intercepted 46 blocks of cannabis weighing 22.2 kilogrammes packed in two cartons going to the United Kingdom on Tuesday.
Earlier on Friday, October 30, they recovered 296 tablets of Swinol going to Australia from Lagos, as well as three shipments of tramadol going to the UK, 20 capsules from Benin City and 96 capsules from Sapele, Delta State, both concealed in vitamin C containers, and 600 tablets of Tramadol 225mg from Asaba hidden in female headwear.
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives arrested a 32-year-old man, Abubakar Ali, at the Marine Beach area of Apapa on Friday, where a stash of drugs was recovered from a small store he built inside the sitting room of his apartment. Items recovered include 1.06kg of Tramadol 250mg, 1.27kg of Tramadol 225mg, 400g of pregabalin capsules, 355g of diazepam, 200ml of codeine and 6.07kg of cannabis.
In Ondo State, NDLEA operatives raided Odofin Road, Uso, on Friday, where they recovered 148 bags of cannabis weighing 1,818 kilogrammes.
Earlier that same day, officers raided a cannabis farm in Board Forest, where they destroyed one hectare of cannabis plantation, recovered 242 kilograms of the drug and arrested a 36-year-old suspect, Itoro Linus Akpan.
In Ekiti State, a 53-year-old man, Peter Agbo, was arrested at Osin Forest, Osin Ekiti, with 216 kilogrammes of cannabis and cannabis seeds.
In Edo State, a driver, Abdulmumini Isah, 39, and a passenger, Danako Godwin, 25, were arrested on Friday when agency operatives seized a golf saloon car loaded with nineteen bags of cannabis weighing 201 kilogrammes.
Three other suspects, Emmanuel Sunday, 25; Samuel Bala, 31; and Loveth Momodu, were also arrested when officers raided a notorious drug joint in Benin City, where quantities of Colorado, Loud and cannabis were recovered.
Also, NDLEA commands across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities.
They commended the officers for the seizures, and agency chairman Mohamed Buba Marwa urged them to sustain the tempo of supply-and-demand reduction efforts.