By Ado Oyeyemi
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have intercepted consignments of cannabis and codeine-based cough syrup worth more than N5bn at the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports in Lagos State and the Onne Port in Rivers State.
The seizures, according to the agency, followed months of intelligence gathering and tracking of the shipments from their ports of origin.
The NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, saying the latest operations also led to the arrest of a 28-year-old businessman, Philip Tunde, who was allegedly attempting to smuggle 4.8kg of cocaine to Milan, Italy.
At the Apapa Port, NDLEA operatives, working with Customs and other stakeholders, recovered 161 parcels of Thai Loud weighing 124kg and valued at N372m.
The drugs were allegedly concealed inside two refrigerators and two cartons in a container shipped from Bangkok, Thailand.
At the Tin Can Island Port, another watch-listed container from Montreal, Canada, yielded 2,595 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 1,297.5kg.
The consignment, concealed in a Toyota Sienna and Hyundai Elantra alongside other items, was estimated at over N3.8bn in street value.
The agency also intercepted two containers at the Onne Port following intelligence-led operations. One contained 40 packs of Loud weighing 22kg, while the other held 109,600 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup weighing 16,440kg. The combined street value of the two consignments was put at N833.2m.
Babafemi said the codeine consignment originated from India and was shipped through Saudi Arabia, where the shipment’s history was allegedly altered to evade detection.
In a related development, Tunde was arrested on September 27 at the joint screening point of Terminal 2, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, shortly before boarding a Royal Air Maroc flight to Milan.
A search reportedly led to the recovery of 16 parcels of cocaine concealed in the soles of eight pairs of trainers and canvas shoes, as well as 195 wraps hidden inside the railings of four travelling bags.
The suspect allegedly told investigators that he paid N16m in cash for the cocaine concealed in the shoes, while the consignment hidden in the bags was intended for delivery to his business partner in Italy.
He reportedly claimed that the money came from compensation he received after suffering an injury at a plastic manufacturing company in Italy.
Meanwhile, the NDLEA said its nationwide operations also resulted in the destruction of 20,234kg of skunk on 8.0936 hectares of cannabis farm in Area 4, Ife South Local Government Area of Osun State.
In Lagos, operatives recovered 209,000 tablets of tramadol from an unoccupied compound at Divine Estate, Ago Palace, while a follow-up operation at Ladipo Spare Parts Market led to the arrest of 23-year-old Ekundayo Taiwo.
The NDLEA said Taiwo was linked to the seizure of 61g of Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis, and 24g of methamphetamine concealed in a bottle of an energy drink and sent as a waybill package on a commercial bus along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended the operatives for the seizures and arrests, urging them to sustain the pressure on drug trafficking networks across the country.
