Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency’s (NDLEA) Directorate of Operations and General Investigations attached to courier companies have declared a total war on drugs and its smugglers.
Truth Live News reports that, on Sunday, October 15, the agency intercepted 1kg methamphetamine concealed in containers of body cream going to New Zealand as well as another consignment of 2.5kg cocaine and phenacetin hidden in walls of a carton heading to Saudi Arabia.
The spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists on Sunday.
He said added that two more seizures – 112grams of Dimethyl Sulfone and 583 grams of Cocaine and phenacetin were made at another courier company in Lagos on Wednesday, October 18.
“While the Dimethyl Sulfone was concealed in the hollow of a motor driving shaft going to New Zealand, the consignment of Cocaine and phenacetin was packed into a bottle of body cream heading to Saudi Arabia,” he said.
The NDLEA spokesman added that operatives arrested 40-year-old Sherif Egbo at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja while attempting to board an Air France flight to Paris, France, after the anti-narcotics agents discovered he ingested illicit drugs.
He said the Madrid, Spain-based Egbo was arrested on Saturday, October 14 after a body scanner revealed that he had wraps of illicit drugs in his stomach.
“He was subsequently placed under observation at the agency’s exhibit recovery room where he excreted 93 pellets of heroin weighing 2.222Kg.
“In his statement, the suspect claimed he works at a chicken hatchery farm in Madrid, Spain and also into drug trafficking business,” Babafemi disclosed.
He added that NDLEA operatives at the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc’s imports shed at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos on Monday, October 16, seized a consignment of 10 cartons containing 500,000 pills of tramadol 225mg branded as tapentadol.
The cargo, which was shipped from India through Qatar Airways with airway bill number MAWB 319-01227236 was purported to be a transit cargo to Monrovia, Liberia.
However, the lid was blown open through partnership and intelligence-sharing mechanisms between NDLEA and its Liberian counterpart.
Also, an attempt by an intending passenger, Ngene Chinecherem, to Muscat, Oman on Qatar Airways, to export 11.100kgs of skunk and 600grams of tramadol concealed in foodstuffs through the Lagos airport was thwarted by NDLEA officers who arrested him and seized the illicit substances.