The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA has intercepted consignments of Loud and codeine syrup worth over N5bn at Apapa, Tincan and Onne ports.
At Apapa, 161 parcels of Thai Loud weighing 124kg, worth N372m, were found in two refrigerators and two cartons in a container from Bangkok on Sept 3.
At Onne, two watch-listed containers yielded 40 packs of Loud (22kg) hidden in a bag and three vehicles, and 109,600 bottles of codeine syrup (16,440kg) shipped from India via Saudi Arabia. Value: N833.2m.
At Tincan, 2,595 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 1,297.5kg worth N3.8bn were recovered from a Toyota Sienna and Hyundai Elantra inside a container from Montreal on Sept 29.
The agency also destroyed 20,234kg of skunk on 8.09 hectares in Ife South, Osun on Sept 30, and arrested a fugitive, Idris Mohammed Kurra, 47, who jumped bail in 2020 over 198kg skunk case in Jos.
The statement read, “At the Apapa port in Lagos, NDLEA officers, acting on intelligence, subjected two containers from Bangkok, Thailand, to 100 per cent examination with men of Customs and other stakeholders. A search of one of the containers on Saturday, 3rd September, yielded 161 parcels of Thai Loud weighing 124kg, worth N372,000,000, concealed in two refrigerators and two cartons.
“At the Tincan Island port in Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday, 29th September, conducted a joint examination of a watch-listed container from Montreal, Canada, with Customs and other stakeholders. As a result, a total of 2,595 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 1,297.5kg were concealed in a Toyota Sienna and a Hyundai Elantra, with 24 blue drums and six jumbo bags in the container. The consignment was worth over N3.8 billion in street value.
“At the Onne port in Rivers State, two containers watch-listed by NDLEA based on processed intelligence were subjected to joint examination with Customs and other security agencies, during which 40 packs of Loud weighing 22kg were found hidden in a travelling bag and three of five vehicles (Toyota Matrix, Toyota Corolla and Hyundai Elantra) shipped in one of the containers, while the second container held 109,600 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup weighing 16,440kg. The container had left India for Saudi Arabia, where the history of its origin was deleted, to avoid being targeted. The codeine and Loud consignments have a combined street value of N833,200,000.”
In other nationwide operations, the agency said it destroyed 20,234kg of skunk on 8.0936 hectares of cannabis farm in Area 4, Ife South Local Government Area of Osun State. There,
“In Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Monday 28th September raided an unoccupied compound at Divine Estate, Ago Palace, where they recovered 209,000 tablets of tramadol, while a 23-year-old Ekundayo Taiwo, was nabbed on Wednesday 30th September in a follow-up operation at Ladipo Spare Parts Market following the seizure of 61 grams of Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis and 24 grams of methamphetamine hidden in a bottle of an energy drink as a waybill package from a commercial bus driver along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway the previous day,” among others.
