The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has intercepted drug consignments worth more than N5 billion at the Apapa, Tin Can Island, and Onne ports and arrested a businessman with 4.8 kg of cocaine at the Lagos airport.
The seizures, involving Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, and codeine-based cough syrup, followed months of intelligence gathering and tracking by the agency.
At Apapa Port, Lagos, NDLEA operatives recovered 161 parcels of Thai Loud weighing 124 kg and valued at N372 million. The drugs were concealed in two refrigerators and two cartons inside a container shipped from Bangkok, Thailand.
At Tin Can Island Port, operatives intercepted a container from Montreal, Canada, containing 2,595 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 1,297.5 kg. The consignment, hidden in two vehicles and other items, was valued at more than N3.8 billion.
At the Onne Port in Rivers State, officers recovered 22 kg of Loud and 109,600 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup weighing 16,440 kg. The two consignments were valued at N833.2 million.
In a related operation, NDLEA officers arrested 38-year-old Philip Tunde at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on September 27 while he was preparing to board a Royal Air Maroc flight to Milan, Italy.
A search of Tunde’s luggage uncovered 16 parcels of cocaine hidden in the soles of eight pairs of shoes and 195 wraps concealed in the railings of four travelling bags. The drugs weighed 4.8 kg in total.
The NDLEA said Tunde claimed he paid N16 million for the cocaine concealed in the shoes, while the drugs hidden in the bags were meant for delivery to a partner in Italy.
The agency also reported other seizures nationwide, including 20,234 kg of cannabis destroyed on an 8.09-hectare farm in Osun State and 209,000 tramadol tablets recovered from an unoccupied compound in Lagos.
NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended the officers involved and urged them to sustain intelligence-led operations against drug trafficking networks.
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