The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has foiled international drug traffickers’ plans to flood Nigerian towns with significant quantities of various illicit narcotics throughout the holiday season.
The plot was foiled when NDLEA agents intercepted millions of tramadol 225mg tablets, thousands of codeine syrup bottles, and bags of Canadian Loud in consignments arriving in the country ahead of the Christmas holiday.
Mr Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, revealed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.
According to Babafemi, NDLEA agents seized 7,500,000 tramadol 225mg pills at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja.
He stated that this was trafficked through the airport’s Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc (NAHCO) import shed and was intercepted by officers with the assistance of Nigeria Customs and other stakeholders.
According to Babafemi, the consignment, which was apprehended on Friday, December 22, arrived aboard a Turkish airline with no place of production or origin.
“Apart from being the first time such shipment would be seized on the airline’s flight, it was equally the first of such coming from Hamburg, Germany.
“The 7.5million tramadol 225mg pills were also specially designed and packaged as Tamil-x concealed in 100 big cartons weighing 7,150kg, which arrived in the country on Dec.11 and were placed under surveillance until last Friday.
“Preliminary test of the tablets proved positive to tramadol hydrochloride,” the spokesman said.
In the same vein, operatives of the Lagos command of the agency on Wednesday, December 20, conducted a search operation on two shops marked Chex Mat Global Link Limited at the Trade Fair complex in the Ojo area of Lagos.
Babafemi said that 258 cartons of codeine-based cough syrup and eight cartons of codeine tablets were recovered.
He said the cartons contained 49, 200 bottles of codeine syrup and 46, 200 tablets of the same opioid.
“The following day, Thursday, December 21, NDLEA operatives raided a house in the Mushin area of Lagos where a 70-year-old grandma, Selifat Cole, and her son, Babajide Cole, were arrested with 117.900kg of cannabis sativa, ” he said.