The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted consignments of captagon and millions of opioid tablets valued at over N6.2 billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
The agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, saying a 49-year-old suspected cross-border drug kingpin, Akinbile Kazeem Aikins, was arrested on August 22 after arriving from Accra, Ghana, aboard an African World Airlines flight.
A search of his carton containing locally made bathing soap, popularly known as Ghana Soap, led to the discovery of 47,200 pills of captagon concealed inside blocks of soap. The illicit amphetamine, valued at over N1.5 billion, was allegedly intended for delivery in northern Nigeria.
In a separate operation, NDLEA operatives recovered 3,900,030 tablets of Tramaking 225mg and Tapentadol 250mg from four abandoned consignments at the airport’s import shed. The drugs, weighing 2,787.40kg, were valued at more than N4.6 billion.
Three of the consignments contained 900,000 tablets of Tramaking, which arrived from Bangladesh aboard RwandAir flights, while the fourth contained 3,000,030 tablets of tapentadol transported from Amsterdam aboard Qatar Airways. The consignments were retrieved after a joint examination involving the NDLEA, Nigeria Customs Service and other stakeholders.
The agency also arrested a 31-year-old United States returnee, Sowunmi David Oludotun, in Lekki, Lagos, for allegedly attempting to take delivery of 3.350kg of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis imported from the United Kingdom.
In Rivers State, operatives raided the notorious Abuja Down/Up area of Port Harcourt and recovered a fireproof safe containing various illicit drugs. In Ondo State, three suspects were arrested with 728kg of skunk along the Ipele-Idoani Road, while two others were apprehended at Aponmu Forest with 341kg of the substance.
Similarly, NDLEA operatives in Delta State recovered more than 176,000 pills of assorted opioids, including tramadol and Molly, during interdiction operations conducted between August 26 and 28.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended officers involved in the operations and urged personnel nationwide to sustain the agency’s efforts against drug trafficking.
Marwa warned that traffickers were becoming increasingly desperate and adopting new methods, including concealing illicit substances in everyday household items, to evade detection. He urged operatives to remain vigilant and maintain the momentum against drug trafficking across the country.
