Consignments of Colorado concealed in vehicles imported from Montreal, Canada and packs of Cannabis juice flown in from South Africa, meant for distribution ahead of the Christmas festive season, have been intercepted by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at the Tincan seaport, Apapa and the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, both in Lagos State, South-West Nigeria.
NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi said, 12 suspects including two dock workers and a wine shop businessman have so far been arrested in connection with the two seizures as well as the recovery of 152 kilogrammes of Skunk from two dealers in Kano, North-West Nigeria; 100,000 pills of Tramadol in Imo State, South-East Nigeria and 520 kilogrammes of Cannabis hidden in soft drinks crates loaded in a truck coming to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
At the SAHCO Import Shed of the Lagos airport, the search of a consolidated cargo from South Africa led to the discovery of smuggled bottled Cannabis juice with a gross weight of 16.50 kilogrammes on Wednesday, December 21.
Babafemi also said investigations by anti-narcotics officers subsequently led to the arrest of four freight agents, namely Soremekun Olalekan Wasiu; Olufisayo Dayo; Moruf Olusegun Bashir and Imole Moses Ajayi, whose statements eventually led to the arrest of the consignee, who is a wine shop business owner, Emebede Chuka, the following day Thursday, December 22.
Similarly, an attempt to export quantities of Cannabis and Ecstasy pills also known as MDMA concealed in beverage drink, Bournvita, containers to Dubai, UAE, through the NAHCO Export Shed on Friday, December 23 was frustrated while a vulcaniser given the assignment for a fee of N4,000, Iyanda Ogunleye Yaya has been arrested.
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In another operation, NDLEA operatives intercepted a consignment of 185 parcels of Cannabis Indica, popularly called Colorado weighing 61.3 kilogrammes during a joint examination of a container at the Tincan seaport, Lagos.
The container marked MSCU5206726 from Montreal, Canada was declared as containing three units of used vehicles but upon a 100% examination, it was found to contain two vehicles; a 2009 Toyota Corolla car and a 2009 Ford Econoline bus as well as used car engines, bicycles, shoes and other items including the drugs.
Two dock workers, including Abdulquadri Abdulazeez and Ogbuji Kenneth are already in NDLEA custody in connection with the seizure following their initial arrest by the Port Security and the Police.
In Kano, North-West Nigeria, two suspects, namely Nura Zakariya’u and Alkasim Abubakar were arrested along Zaria-Kano Road at Kwanar Dangora, with 161 blocks of Cannabis weighing 152 kilogrammes and various quantities of Exol and Codeine-based syrup, while a total of 100,000 pills of tramadol were recovered from a suspect, Amaechi Johnson in Imo State on his way to Onitsha, Anambra state.
In a related development, a total of 708 kilogrammes of Cannabis were recovered by operatives from a bus at Ehinogbe, Owo area of Ondo State, South-West Nigeria on Tuesday, December 20.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
