Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted a total of 31,124,600 pills of tramadol 225mg and bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over N17,932,200,000.00 in street value at the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers State, and Tincan Seaport in Lagos.
The seizures were made following intelligence processed by the Agency on the movement of shipments from their port of origin in India, leading to a request for a 100 percent joint examination of the watch-listed containers with the Nigerian Customs Service and other security agencies.
A breakdown of the seizures shows that 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers at Tincan Port in Lagos on Thursday, 29th, and Friday, 30th August 2024. Each of the two containers had 175,000 bottles of the opioid.
At the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, NDLEA operatives intercepted a total of 447 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing 29,840,000 pills of the opioid, as well as 380,000 bottles of codeine syrup from three containers on Thursday, 29th August. The tramadol shipments were labeled under different brand names such as Royal Tapentadol, Carisoprodol 225mg, and Royal Tramadol Hydrochloride 225mg.
The following day, Friday, 30th August, another set of three containers watch-listed by the NDLEA were subjected to joint examination. At the end of the exercise, a total of 3,030 cartons of codeine syrup containing 554,600 bottles of the opioid were recovered.
This brings the total bottles of codeine seized at Onne, Rivers, and Tincan in Lagos to 1,284,600 bottles worth N8,992,200,000.00 in street value, while the combined seizure of tramadol stood at 29,840,000 pills valued at N8,940,000,000.00.
In a related development, NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State, on Tuesday, 27th August, arrested a suspect, Eze Emekan Don, while attempting to board a Cronos airline flight to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea with 1,490 pills of tramadol concealed and packaged as cosmetics of different brands inside his luggage. His attempt to bribe the officers to evade arrest was rebuffed.
Meanwhile, a wanted ex-beauty queen, Ms. Aderinoye Queen Christmas, also known as Ms. Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye, has surrendered to the Lagos Command of the Agency after about eight months in hiding. She was declared wanted by the Agency in January after she escaped from her Lekki, Lagos residence when NDLEA operatives raided her apartment at Oral Estate, Lekki, on Wednesday, 24th January, following credible intelligence that she was involved in illicit drug activities. The suspect was Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and founder of Queen Christmas Foundation. Items recovered from her home during the search, witnessed by estate officials, included 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, large quantities of drug packaging materials, a black RAV 4 SUV marked Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and her picture frame, among others.
The suspect, who claimed she had been hiding in Akure, Ondo State since January when she escaped arrest in Lekki, Lagos, surrendered to the Agency on Wednesday, 28th August.
Additionally, no less than 1,122 kilograms of cannabis were seized from a suspect, Mustapha Ibrahim, when he was arrested on Monday, 26th August, along Orchid Road, Ajah, Lagos, while 816kg of the same psychoactive substance belonging to a suspect at large was recovered from the same location the same day.
In Niger State, NDLEA operatives on Monday, 26th August, arrested a suspect, Friday Gabriel, along Minna-Suleja Road while conveying 1,900 capsules of tramadol, 300 bottles of codeine syrup, and 600 packets of Exol-5 tablets. Similarly, operatives in Bauchi State on Saturday, 31st August, arrested two suspects: Garba Muhammed, 35; and Usman Yakubu Shehu, 31, along Bauchi-Gombe Road while transporting 308 blocks of cannabis weighing 246.4kg, concealed in a false compartment of a J5 bus marked Edo State URM 38 ZY.
Meanwhile, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization activities in schools, worship centers, workplaces, and communities among others over the past week. These include WADA enlightenment lectures to members of Amankwu community, Ohafia LGA, Abia State; WADA advocacy visits to the Vice Chancellor of the University of Delta, Prof. Stella Chiemeka, in Agbor, Delta State; WADA sensitization lectures to members of Down Luggere community, Jimeta, Yola North LGA, Adamawa State; youths at the ‘Save the Children Campaign’ annual holiday camp at Community Secondary School, Aka Offot, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State; youths during their summer class at Olubadan Stadium, Iyaganku, Ibadan, Oyo State; and WADA advocacy visits to the Central Bank, Kaduna Office, Kaduna State.
In response to the latest seizures and arrests, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended all the officers and men of PHPC, Tincan, and the Special Operations Unit of the Agency that had been working on the targeted containers for their vigilance and professionalism. He also praised the support received from other stakeholders at the ports, which enabled the seamless and successful operations in targeting the shipments. He further applauded operatives in Lagos, Niger, Bauchi, PHIA, and other Commands across the country for their diligence in balancing drug demand reduction and drug supply reduction efforts.
