By OLA MUDOPE, Lagos –
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has thwarted desperate attempts by transnational criminal organisations to flood Nigerian communities with large quantities of assorted illicit drugs during the yuletide season.
To this end, the operatives of the NDLEA intercepted millions of tramadol 225mg pills, thousands of codeine syrup bottles and bags of Canadian Loud in consignments arriving the country ahead of the Christmas celebration.
The NDLEA spokesman, Mr Femi Babafemi disclosed this in a statement on Sunday via the agency’s verified X handle (formerly known as Twitter).
Mr. Babafemi explained that at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja Lagos, all tricks employed by the drug syndicates to smuggle into the country seven million five hundred thousand (7,500,000) pills of tramadol 225mg through the NAHCO import shed of the airport were frustrated by NDLEA officers with the cooperation of men of the Nigeria Customs and other stakeholders.
He said: “The consignment which was taken into custody on Friday 22nd December came onboard Turkish airline with no country of manufacture or origin. Apart from being the first time such shipment would be seized on the airlines 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 tamol-x concealed in 100 big cartons weighing 7,150kg, which arrived the country on 11th December and placed under surveillance until last Friday. Preliminary test of the tablets proved positive to tramadol hydrochloride.
“In the same vein, operatives of the Lagos Command of the Agency on Wednesday 20th December conducted a search operation on two shops marked Chex Mat Global Link Limited at Trade Fair complex in Ojo area of Lagos where 258 cartons of codeine-based cough syrup and eight cartons of codeine tablets were recovered. The cartons contain: 49, 200 bottles of codeine syrup and 46, 200 tablets of same opioid.
The following day Thursday 21st December, NDLEA operatives raided a house in Mushin area of Lagos where a 70-year-old grandma, Selifat Funke Cole and her son, Babajide Ayorinde Cole were arrested with 117.900kg of cannabis sativa.
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