Two containers with no fewer than 1,596 cartons of codeine-based syrup containing 319, 200 bottles of the opioid worth N2.234bn in street value has been intercepted by the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency at the Tin Can seaport in Lagos.
The Director, Media & Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, disclosed that the agency’s operatives at the Tin Can seaport in Lagos, on Friday, intercepted two containers that came from the Mundra port in India with no fewer than 1,596 cartons of codeine-based syrup containing 319, 200 bottles of the opioid worth N2.234bn in street value during a joint examination with other port stakeholders.
Babafemi also stated that the agency had made several arrests and busts in various locations across Nigeria. For instance, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, an Onitsha, Anambra State-based-businessman, Ibeanusi Solomon Nosike, excreted 68 wraps of cocaine after 12 days of excretion observation following his arrest at the local wing of the international airport, by operatives of the NDLEA.
It was stated that the 36-year-old Ibeanusi was arrested in the early hours of August 8, 2024, at the old domestic terminal of the Lagos airport while attempting to board the first flight out of Lagos to Abuja where he was scheduled to join a Qatar Airways flight to Vietnam at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. The suspect who came under the NDLEA surveillance following intelligence was said to have arrived in Lagos from his base in Onitsha the previous day and lodged in a hotel where he swallowed the 68 wraps of cocaine before heading to the airport for a 6:30 am flight the following morning. He was thereafter intercepted by the NDLEA operatives who moved him into an excretion observation, where he spent the next 12 days excreting the cocaine pellets weighing 1.282 kilograms.
Also, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, 1.20kg cannabis concealed in a package to Dubai was intercepted, and the sender, Aligbo Chukwudi Jacob, was arrested, while at the Mushin area of the state, 3,834 bottles of codeine syrup, 5,200 Co-Codamol pills, and 11,880 Rohypnol tablets were recovered from Godwill Davidson who also was arrested.
In Kano State, the statement revealed that 145,400 tramadol pills were seized, and two suspects arrested, while in Edo State, two ladies were arrested for online sales of illicit drugs. Some 288.8kg of cannabis was recovered from Saturday Edobor while 30 cups of cookies and 17 slices of cake laced with illicit substances were recovered from Odion Uzordinma.
In Oyo State, 267.5 litres of skuchies and 18 grams of Canadian Loud were recovered from Feranmi Bankole and Fredrick Tobiloba.
At the Seme Border, five female drug traffickers were arrested with 14 packs of Loud cannabis weighing 6.97kg.
It further stated that another suspect, Yahaya Ibrahim, 23 years old, was nabbed by operatives along the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja Expressway, Kogi State with 42,000 pills of tramadol coming from Asaba, Delta State en route to Potiskum, Yobe State.
