- Safiu Kehinde
No fewer than six million pills of opioids with a combined street value of N6.5 billion have been intercepted by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers and the Apapa seaport, Lagos.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Sunday by the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
According to the statement, the seizure of the opioids comprising of tamol 225mg, tapentadol 225mg and carisoprodol 225mg as well as 332,000 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup followed intelligence and tracking of new trafficking routes to ship illicit substances into Nigeria by drug cartels, which necessitated the watch-listing of the containers for 100 percent examination.
A joint operation carried out by NDLEA officials, Nigerian Customs Service, and other security agencies last week Monday and Tuesday atthe Port Harcourt ports led to the discovery of six million pills of opioids and 162,000 bottles of codeine syrup were concealed in two containers.
At the Apapa port in Lagos, a total of 170,000 bottles of codeine syrup were discovered in a watch-listed container by NDLEA operatives during a similar joint examination exercise on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the NDLEA operatives also arrested two British nationals, Mhizha Tatendra and Ayedipe Adejuwon, as well as two Nigerians, Shonowo Oluwaseun and Ofuoma Ayobami over alleged attempt to smuggle into Nigeria 92 bags of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis weighing 51.10kg through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos.
Tatendra was intercepted with the consignment upon his arrival at the MMIA on a Qatar Airline flight from Doha based on processed intelligence on Thursday 15th May.
He was allowed to pass through the security control unhindered and closely monitored by NDLEA operatives to the car park, where the owner of the cargo, Ayedipe, who is a Nigerian British, was waiting in an SUV along with his relation Shonowo and the driver of the vehicle, Ofuoma, to receive the courier.
The NDLEA operatives tracking them however swooped on them as they attempted to drive out of the airport car park, arresting them with the drug exhibits in the vehicle.
In his statement, Tatendra confessed he was recruited during his vacation weeks ago while he was promised 1,300 British Pounds after a successful delivery of the consignment in Lagos.
The arrowhead of the syndicate, Ayedipe, confessed that he arrived in Nigeria a day earlier from South Africa through Ghana.
A follow-up operation at their apartment in Lekki led to more discoveries.
At the point of his arrest, N93,000 and 17,200 South African Rand were recovered from him while a search of his Lekki apartment, led to the seizure of N3.8 million cash, an Apple laptop, an iPhone 14 Pro Max and four laughing gas (Nitro Oxide) canisters.