NDLEA Intercepts 1,274 Cocaine, Colorado Parcels in Lagos, 5.6m Opioid Pills in Kano
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have intercepted at the Tincan Seaport in Lagos, large consignments of cocaine and Colorado, a strong strain of cannabis, concealed in containerised household items and vehicles imported from Durban, South Africa and Canada.
Spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement, yesterday, said the success of the exercise followed coordinated intelligence and months of tracking of the containers by three special units of NDLEA.
He stated further that the illicit drugs along with arms, ammunition and sundry military effects were seized during joint examination of the three containers by the agency’s officers and their counterparts from Customs Service and other security agencies between last Thursday and Friday.
He revealed that some of the agency’s sniffer dogs were also deployed to help identify locations and bags used in concealing the illicit items.
Some of the items recovered from the containers included 1, 274 parcels of cocaine and Colorado with a total weight of 884.09 kilogrammes; four pistols; 197 rounds of 9mm ammunition, 49 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, 275 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition, 14 rounds of 9mm ammunition and sundry military personnel effects as well as some chemicals in kegs.
He noted that with the exception of 32.5 kilogrammes shipment of Colorado that came in used vehicles from Canada, the rest of the items were found in two of three containers that arrived the Tincan port from Durban, South Africa onboard a vessel marked MSC RESILIENT III and discharged on new year eve, 31st December 2023.
Babafemi also disclosed that a suspect linked to one of the containers, UACU 5348336, bearing the 32.5 kilogrammes Colorado, 41-year-old Akara Chibugo, has already been tracked and arrested by NDLEA operatives.
He added that two vigilant freight agents and a traveler escaped being roped into two drug trafficking operations by desperate traffickers at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, stating that the two agents were contacted to send a consignment of 1 kilogramme cannabis concealed in tins of beverage to Turkey but chose to submit the shipment to NDLEA checks before processing the cargo, noting that the psychoactive substance was later discovered to be hidden inside the shipment.
Babafemi said, in the same vein, NDLEA operatives last Friday arrested one Okosun Punitt, the consignee of a consignment of tramadol concealed in a bottle of dietary supplements, which a staff of Pathfinder International Ltd, Ajuzieogu Ugochukwu attempted sending through an intending passenger on Ibom Air to Accra, Ghana at the Lagos airport last Tuesday.
He added that a video of the face-off between the passenger and
Ajuzieogu later went viral after the vigilant passenger suspected the consignment contained illicit substances.
He said both Ajuzieogu and the exhibit were later transferred to NDLEA last Thursday by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) for investigation, stating that preliminary findings by NDLEA showed the parcel contained 50 pills of tramadol 225mg concealed in a bottle of dietary supplements, and that a follow-up operation by the agency led to the arrest of Okosun upon his return from Ghana on Friday, whom in his statement confirmed ownership of the drug.
Babafemi said in Kano, no fewer than 5,653,000 pills of tramadol 250mg and exol-5 were seized from three suspects, noting that while Nura Abdullahi, 38, and Tahir Mukhtar, 42, were arrested at Bacharawa area of Kano with 5,404,000 pills of tramadol 250mg on Sunday 14th January, Yusuf Umar, 50, was nabbed at Gadar Tamburawa area of the state the previous day, Saturday, 13th January, with 249,000 tablets of exol-5 by NDLEA operatives.