The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted large consignments of codeine-based syrup and Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis of over two billion naira in street value at the Port Harcourt seaport, Onne, and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja.
NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi who revealed this in a statement said NDLEA officers, with the cooperation of other security agencies, intercepted a large consignment of Loud, packed in eight suitcases, containing 320 parcels with a total weight of 164.50kg of the strong psychoactive substance coming from Canada on a KLM flight via Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The consignment, estimated to be worth N960,000,000.00, which was brought in by a passenger, Ughenu Nnaife Francis, was intercepted during a joint search operation by security operatives, personnel of NDLEA, Customs, and others at the airport‘s E-arrival hall.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect is a resident of Germany but traveled to Toronto, Canada, to transport the drug to Nigeria.
The NDLEA said during interrogation, he claimed that he was recruited to convey the drug to Nigeria for an agreed fee of N6 million.
Similarly, the operatives intercepted a container marked TEMU 6807401, imported from India en route to the C to C bonded terminal in Enugu on Monday, May 27 at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex.
During a joint examination of the container by NDLEA, Customs and other security agencies, 1,750 cartons of codeine weighing 26,250kg, containing 175,000 bottles of the opioid worth N1,225,000,000, in street value were discovered.
While in Abuja, a 25-year-old lady, Blessing Thomas, was arrested with 1.0kg methamphetamine by NDLEA operatives on patrol along Kwali – Gwagwalada expressway on Friday, 31st May, while traveling in a commercial bus from Lagos to Yola, Adamawa State. In the same vein, operatives in Nasarawa State on Wednesday May 29, nabbed a 70-year-old grandfather, Muhammadu Ibrahim, with 57.2kg cannabis in Lafia, the state capital.
Two suspects, Suleiman Kazeem, 35, and Sunday Gbenga, 20, were arrested when NDLEA officers raided Ara forest, Ara-Ekiti in Ekiti State where they recovered 426 kilograms of cannabis sativa already processed and packed in big sacks, while they destroyed over 4,000kg of same substance on 1.66 hectares of farmland on Thursday, May 30.