Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA have raided a clandestine factory in Mubi, Adamawa State, North-East Nigeria where a new psychoactive substance, Akuskura, was being produced in large quantities and distributed to Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic.
At the time of the raid on Saturday, April 29 production activities were ongoing on the premises.
Meanwhile, operatives have also seized 126 parcels of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of Cannabis, weighing 63 kilogrammes concealed in a used Toyota Corolla car imported from Toronto, Canada at the Tincan port in Lagos.
This is even as an attempt by a freight agent, Mordi Chukwuemeka Samuel, to export 900 grammes of the same substance hidden inside walls of a travelling bag containing food items, to Kenya, was thwarted by NDLEA officers at the SAHCO Export Shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos on Saturday, April 29.
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NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, said when Mordi presented the bag, which he claimed contained food items for export, operatives noticed that in the course of searching the consignment, the side walls of the bag were unevenly bloated, after which they dismantled the false packings and recovered the illicit substance.
The previous day, Friday, April 28, NDLEA operatives at the Tincan port intercepted 63 kilogrammes of Canadian Loud packed in bags in the boot of one of the five used vehicles in a container marked, TLLU4840762 coming from Toronto via Montreal, during a joint examination with other stakeholders at the port. Similarly, men of the Agency’s Directorate of Operations and Investigation, DOGI, attached to courier firms also on Thursday, April 27 intercepted a 1.53-kilogramme skunk concealed in old hard drives meant for export to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
In Benue State, North-Central Nigeria, operatives recovered 859 bottles of Codeine based Syrup weighing 117.3 kilogrammes abandoned by a suspected dealer about two kilometres away from NDLEA checkpoint along Enugu-Otukpo road on Wednesday, April 26.
And two suspects, including 35-year-old Kabiru Muhammed and 28-year-old Isah Muhammed, were arrested with 20 blocks of Cannabis weighing 11.2 kilogrammes concealed in a bag of cassava flakes, popularly known as garri along Zaria-Kano Road, in Kano State, North-West Nigeria on Friday, April 28.
No fewer than seven bags of cannabis with a gross weight of 74.5 kilogrammes were recovered when operatives raided an uncompleted building located in a bush in Ala town, in the Akure area of Ondo State, South-West Nigeria just as 60 kilogrammes of the same substance concealed among footwear in two jumbo sacks were recovered from one Aminu Mohammed along Ibadan-Oyo Road in Oyo state, South-West Nigeria while waiting to board a vehicle to Kebbi State.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
