The Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) caught a lot of dangerous drugs at the Tincan port in Lagos. These drugs are worth N13.72 billion. Let’s talk about what happened in simple words.
Femi Babafemi, who speaks for NDLEA, said they found 250 million pills of a strong drug called tapentadol and 350,000 bottles of codeine syrup. Tapentadol is an opioid and is three times stronger than another drug called tramadol.
They found these drugs on Tuesday, September 17, and Friday, September 20, 2024. These drugs were hidden in three big containers. The NDLEA was watching these containers because they got secret information about them.
To make sure they caught everything, the NDLEA asked to check the containers completely with help from Nigeria Customs and other security teams.
The NDLEA said, “Our officers found 25 million pills of tapentadol and 350,000 bottles of codeine syrup at the Tincan port in Lagos.”
“The 25 million pills of tapentadol are worth N13,725,000,000 on the street, and the codeine is worth N2,450,000,000. So, all together, the drugs they caught are worth N16,175,000,000.”
More Actions Across the Country
Around the same time, NDLEA officers did other important work too. In Lagos, they arrested an 80-year-old man named Pa Aremu Shojobi on September 20. They found 14 kilograms of cannabis at his home in Iyana Ipaja. He confessed that he had been dealing in drugs for about 25 years.
In Kano, a 38-year-old man named Okafor Ifeanyi Anthony was caught at the airport with 76 wraps of cocaine in his stomach. He was trying to fly to Iran on a Qatar Airlines flight. After watching him for three days, Okafor passed out the 76 wraps, which weighed 1.267 kilograms.
On September 17, NDLEA officers seized 700,000 Exol-5 pills on the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway. These pills were being taken to Kano and Kaduna. On September 20, a young man named Udemefuna Chibuike, who is 23 years old, was stopped on the Mokwa-Jebba road. He had 49,000 tramadol pills, diazepam, tramadol injections, and codeine syrup.
In Port Harcourt, the officers found 451 blocks of cannabis weighing 213 kilograms on September 18. They arrested a 33-year-old person named Ogochukwu Paul. On September 20, another person named Jonathan Ali Abuttur, who is 46, was stopped in Plateau State. He had 808 kilograms of cannabis hidden in sugar and fertilizer bags. In Kwara, they also arrested a person named Shaibu Musa with 28 kilograms of cannabis.